Expensive kids

i read in someone's blog about kids spending shit loads of money buying useless things like branded clothes and spending their lau pei and lau bu's money like drinking water, buying this and that, following fasion, chasing after trends, becoming popular and all. i think that that is why there is the perception that it's expensive to have kids. cos kids these days expect that much more creature comforts.

it is not the fault of these kids though. i think society on the whole is like that. we complain that things are getting more expensive. is it really? if you don't buy a car, if you just stay in a HDB flat, if you don't go eat out at restaurants every week, or go carrefour to buy your groceries, if you just cook at home, buy your groceries from the wet market near by, i'm sure the cost of living isn't that much more expensive. i'm not saying that things aren't getting more expensive. they are. but inflation in prices is compounded by inflation in expectations.

my parents are not rich people. my household income is only slightly more than $5000 a month. yet my parents have quite a lot of savings. no... they aren't rich. but well to do. and that is because my parents, particularly my mom, is super thrifty... almost to the point of being miserly. my mom packs lunch to work everyday for the last 30 years. that easily saves at least a dollar a day. don't knock that. it all adds up.

i think we are just too into this entire consumerist culture that the 'west' seems to have indoctrinated us. we spend and spend and spend. on what? ourselves. more often than not, just ourselves. even if we are not really rich, we would go out of our way, bend over backwards to spend every last cent that we have on ourselves. and then we complain that things are too expensive. have we considered whether we really need the things that we spend on? if we only spend on the things that we really need (i.e. if we don't have these things, we will DIE), then we will find that we actually have a lot of money left over to do a lot more. like give to society. like save for our old age. like take care of our parents. like have kids.

but no. we NEED to spend on ourselves, to PAMPER ourselves. is that perhaps reflective of how SELFISH we have gotten?

Tan Kah Kee ate only porridge, peanuts and salted vegetables, even after he made his fortune. whatever money he had, he used for the community. ACS, The Chinese High School (now the Hwachong Institute), the then Nantah all benefitted from his generosity. whatever happened to that kind of attitude?

i am not condemning capitalism. if not for capitalism, TKK wouldn't have made his fortune. but whatever happened to the spirit of giving? of spending not on ourselves but for others? whatever happened to that?

and the same goes for time. if we don't go around chasing after all these hedonistic, self-centred pleasures, luxuries, etc. then we wouldn't have to work our asses off earning money and we would have time to spend with our family, our extended family, our friends, doing something for society, etc.

whatever happened to all that? if our entire life is only about spending our own time and money just for ourselves, our own 'enjoyment', then what is the point of living? cos soon, we will die. does all these 'enjoyment' really make us happier?

so to those of us (yes... i am guilty of it too. i resolve to change) who spend so much for ourselves, i say, stop, reflect. think of people like Tan Kah Kee. let us aspire to be like him.