Volume 3 Issue 20: Intelligent Investing

Fuel Prices

Price per liter of fuel

Can't help but to post this as I saw it on Facebook. For those of you non-Malay speakers/readers, the above chart shows the price of one liter of petrol in the respective countries. All we hear is lament and complaints about how expensive the price of petrol is. Are those complaints warranted? Perhaps.

The funny thing about the list above is that, if you were to change the title to "Countries facing political uprisings", most of the countries would still be there. No prizes for guessing which. The problem is not so much in the prices of fuel, but the amount of budget deficit we are in and how distorted the demand for fuel has become. I would bet anyone a nickel that most of the countries in the list above do not even come close to having a persistent budget deficit like that of Malaysia.

Granted, the real problem is where the deficit came from to begin with, but that is another issue altogether. But just a heads up to you Main Streeters, the era of subsidized petrol is more or less over. If you guys don't think that some particular races are entitled to any "free" gifts, you should be more than willing to taste your own medicine. We are resourceful people. We will find ways to figure out this additional burden, just like how we have always figured out to solve any other problem.