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Sunday, November 29, 2009
Rich kid, poor kid
Hello. Since i've just finished my wisp assignment not too long ago, and i'm guessing my wisp teacher isnt gonna read my essay, i'll just post it here for fun since i know at least people will read it. ahahah here it goes, its titled Rich kid poor kid. They used to say the type of man is determined by the car he drives. Just exactly how true is this saying? Or is it just another phrase from an egoistic, testosterone charged, rich man? What about the people who cannot afford to drive neither a luxurious car nor live in a spacious apartment? What do these materialistic factors which Singaporeans fondly refer to as the “5Cs”, say about oneself? For a start, i don’t think any of these “5Cs” can be used to judge a person’s character. Today, i would like to touch on a relatively new prejudice- the social gap among Singaporeans. You cannot deny that being materialistic does affect your appearance. Studies have shown that it takes around three seconds for one to judge another person based on physical appearance, poise and body language. Fitting shirts with trendy designs and designer jeans would make one look a class above the rest and in certain cases, creates an impression that one is refined and educated. On the contrary, one who dresses in a baggy old fashioned shirt with a worn out Bermudas would create the impression that one is lazy and it does not reflect quite well on his attitude towards work. But all of these assumptions and impressions are just based on the first look, which is nexus of the “rich get richer and poor get poorer” vicious cycle. Allow me to explain why. In the 21st century, people deny it but i believe subconsciously, in one way or another, judge people based on first impressions. When we see a man dress in rags, we associate them with poverty. Who would have known that maybe that man had a particular obsession with worn out singlets? So between a rich man dressed nicely to go for an interview and a poor man dressed normally to go for the same job interview, chances are, if the rich man does not get the job, he will at least leave a better impression. Thus, the poor man is yet again, out of job. With no job, he has no income. And with no income, he cannot support his family, lest upgrade himself in terms of education. The family then enters the vicious cycle. The family being poor have to scrim and save just to put the children to school. It’s good if the children are mature about the family situation and spend money wisely but different people mature at different times so there still might be cases of children squandering what little money there is left and wasting their school days away. Time passes, the children grow up but not only do they not have a job, they only have an ‘O’ level certificate or perhaps a diploma. Thus the cycle continues and other factors like little parent-child time, poor upbringing, incomplete education, etc just makes matters worse. The rich on the other hand are enjoying every bit of life. They ride in posh cars instead of squeezing in the “bus 154” like sardines in a can. They wear a new set of clothes everyday to school, each set different from the previous ones. In some cases, they do not even wear the same clothes twice! In fact, I have a couple of friends who are such examples. They are always chasing after fashion, after wearing their clothes once, they find it old and boring and they never wear it again. Even if the rich do not study hard, they still get to enter universities, be it private or overseas and even if that does not work out, they would still have the money to set up their own business and by any means, avoid being stuck in the rat race. With money and status comes along many other benefits. Be it in the education, military or even in life. With money you get to go to a good school; with status, you get treated better in the army; and with both money and status, one would have no lack of friends with so many people crowding around you. Quality of these friendships are unfortunately, not guaranteed no matter how rich or famous you are though. These examples are of quite extreme ends of the socio-economic scale but they serve to drive the point in that socio-economic issues can lead to serious business in the future. So what happened to the rest of the people? I would say that majority of Singaporeans fall into the middle class category, making ends meet with the occasional holiday treat to somewhere near like Bangkok and Australia; always trying to find ways to get richer like buying 4D and Toto. And when that does not work out, they turn to the professionals. Numerous sell-out talk shows by Robert Kiyosaki and Adam Khoo’s millionaire 101 top selling books certainly give testimony to that. But on a more serious note, we should not underestimate the problem at hand. The United Nations have calculated the gap between the richest 10% of the population and the poorest 10% (R/P 10%) of the population of various countries and put them in terms of a number scale. Countries like Bolivia and Argentina have a R/P 10% of 168 and 40 respectively. United States achieved a score of 15.9. Guess how Singapore faired? We scored a mouth gaping 17.7! That’s impressive. This goes to show that the socio-economic problem is more serious in a small island like ours when even our neighbouring country like Indonesia scored a 7.8. With a growing socio-economic gap, one can only imagine the repercussions that come along. Already we can see it happening in various forms. Private secondary schools get more funding with so many sponsors and they also get sovereignty over curriculum. They might adopt a different curriculum and unique teaching methods so as to groom their students into future scholars. This might give private school students an edge over the rest. Already some form of elitism has been surfacing in the recent years. Many online forums have featured the debate on whether students from elite schools are really good or are they just too proud. Should this be allowed to carry on, social segregation might plague the youths of Singapore and like any other vicious social cycle, the problem will be brought forth to the future generations should no action be taken. The government have tried to bridge this gap by lowering income taxes for lower income groups of people or waive income taxes. But is this move really practical? I beg to differ. I feel that this move only helps the group of people at the extreme end. People who live in 1 room flats with barely any income. Great, now that they don’t have to contribute to CPF, they can now use their salary to support themselves, but what about the masses? The masses are in the middle class category. What is being done to help raise their economic bar? I am sure the annual dividends from the miserable remaining budget are not helping much. A suggestion would be to provide micro loans to people of the middle class or to any other people who are in need. Loans would of course be on a case by case basis. With small loans, not only are the people able to return the money, they might be able to salvage their business or pursue their education further. This helps both socially and economically. Moral lessons that discourage social-economic prejudice can be emphasised in schools as well, preferably from a young age so as to instil positive values in the youth as well as the future generations. In a nutshell, the social-economic gap among fellow Singaporeans cannot be taken lightly. Should things get out of hand, our once racially, socially, economically, religiously harmonious nation would end up in dire straits. Though it is tough, i would encourage each and every one of you to do your little part by not passing judgements too quick. A little action goes a long way.
i blogged@ 1:20 AM
When I die, they'll say, 'He couldn't play s***, but he sure made it sound good!'
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