YOURSAY | ‘I have hardly any savings. And there are only two of us in my household.’

What’s the average cost of living these days?

Fairplayer: How is the average household income calculated?

If it is based on a handful of those earning more than six-figure incomes, two handfuls of those earning five-figure incomes, and 80 percent or more earning four-figure or three-figure incomes, the average of RM5,900 is probably not an accurate picture of what the average Malaysian household is earning per month.

Most Malaysians are struggling with incomes of below RM2,000 per month, while a great number are living from hand to mouth and a huge number are jobless.

And to top it all, most Malaysians are weighed down by rising costs. I suggest that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) be removed and all subsidies reinstated.

Hang Jebat: Zan Azlee, it's an excellent article. I use to live well with RM5,000 a month 10 years ago. Now with RM15,000, I have hardly any savings. And there are only two of us in my household.

Dont Just Talk: You are right, Zan Azlee, and what about retirees without monthly pension but surviving on what little money they saved when they started working in the mid-60s.

The value of the ringgit was big then with RM0.90 to the Singapore’s $1, but now it is RM3.20 to the Singapore dollar.

A cup of coffee/tea cost 20 cents and a bowl of noodles cost 30 cents, unlike the present time, where it costs RM1.80 and RM6.50 respectively.

With 6 percent GST added to whatever thing you buy, except for essential goods, the honest, hard-working pensioners of the 60s, whose hands were always on the wheels unlike those dirty politicians whose hands are allegedly always in the tills, they are also victims of the high cost of living.

Clearwater: The average cost of living relative to income levels for the average wage earner these days is not unlike the average cost of living in the early 1960s.

Of course, now, it is very much easier to live better with credit card debts, instalment payments, consumer loans and the friendly Ah Long (loan sharks).

Fair Play: There are lies, damn lies and statistics.

A random survey in a small town involving 10 persons, nine are local tourists from Kuala Lumpur visiting the small town with an average monthly income RM6,000 a month and the 10th person is a local town resident with an income of RM2,500 a month.

Now the average income for the small town is RM5,650.

Anonymous #31081882: I'm surprised that starting salaries are still RM2,000. That was the starting salary about 20 years ago and is less than US$450 per month.

It really shows that there has been no real progress under the BN government for the past 20 years. We have lost at least two decades.

Wira: Now go and convince the rural Malays. It has yet to hit them because in the kampung, RM2,000 goes a longer way than RM5,900 in Bolehland’s major towns.

Anonymous #37634848: Zan Azlee, it is a good attempt to open eyes. The average household income of RM5,900 is a deceptive figure.

Earnings should be stratified by low-, medium-, high-earners and relate it to the percentage of the population in each category. That would give us a clearer picture of the suffering of the rakyat.

With your keen interest in this field, try to see if you can probe into this and educate us. The figures are available. It can bring out a lot more surprises.

Watan: Someone is taking part of our money away, for example, through corruption, bloated workforce and inefficiency. There’s no one to blame except ourselves.

Look at Singapore, they still earn the same except that their currency comes with three times our purchasing power.

With low value coupled with ‘leakages’, what we get is what is left, minus the bloatedness, corruption and inefficiency.

Mosquitobrain: How nice it would be to have RM2.6 billion in your personal bank account, but my only wish is to have RM2.6 million. Just RM2.6 million.

Rafizi's SD claims ex-MACC top brass is his source

Vijay47: Malaysians rightly are shamed of 1MDB. But reduced to basics, 1MDB is just another alleged theft where what stands out is the sheer audacity and scale of the amount missing and that the victims are an entire nation; in essence, the alleged petty thief has moved up big time.

But the most shameful element is that every facet of this alleged crime and almost every related person or body, be it the perpetrators or those with the responsibility to investigate, reflect the collapse of a country's system.

Because of a certain powerful personality and the forces behind him, this abomination has been allowed to blossom and thrive, while enforcement agencies like Bank Negara, the Attorney-General's Chambers, the police, and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission are seen to be unable to see what had transpired.

The most contemptible feature is that whimpering AG who seems digging deeper and deeper holes with every ridiculous defence or explanation he comes out with. What hope is there when the highest lawman of the land flounders in a cesspool of his own making?

Gaji Buta: Any attempt to charge anyone may be stopped, possibly for the second time, by the 'most powerful man' in Malaysia.

MACC should issue press statements on daily basis on their progress, so this will not be a mystery to everyone, like before, in case their work is shut down.

Clongviews: Upright graft busters with principles and conscience who could not proceed with taking action on the highly corrupted or tolerate the gag order were told to resign or sacked.

People like them should now come forward to provide evidence and nail the culprits so that they could have peace of mind.

Surely there are some more top officials connected with the 1MDB/SRC waiting to spill out when the time is right.

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