KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — The government’s talk of economic transformation and reform has little resonance with the nation’s newest batch of voters who are suffering from the erosion of spending power in the country which they feel has made it a struggle to survive and clouds their future.
Unlike the older generation of voters who were able to easily pay off a house and a car within a few years of starting work, today’s generation of young adult workers find themselves in debt before they even start working and are looking at 20-30 years to pay off a house, if they can even afford one, and as long as nine years to pay off a car.
The country is also grappling with poor purchasing power as reflected by KL’s ranking in the 2011 Prices and Wages report by Swiss bank UBS AG, placing a lowly 49 among major global cities, down from 47 in 2010.
While wages have largely remained unchanged for the past two to three decades, inflation has been steadily rising, hitting 3.2 per cent last year with prices of food and beverages increasing even faster at 4.8 per cent.
A poll of young working adults by The Malaysian Insider showed that that they were concerned that the difference between wages and the cost of living had reached a critical stage, with many looking at the prospect of either meagre savings or high debt and feeling hard pressed to survive without family assistance.
Among some of the suggested actions the government take were to set minimum wage levels while capping inflation.
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Fix the economy, say struggling new-generation voters
February 14, 2012 – MI
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