The sentiments I get about the recently tabled 2009 mini budget isn’t that great. It doesn’t hold much appeal to the individuals, really. A lot of planning has gone to retrain and reskill people, to encourage tertiary education all for the sake of a chance of a better job in the near and far future. But it doesn’t address the issue of here and now, does it?
There are efforts to help those who are jobless get back into the job market through direct and indirect job creation in the public and private sector, ranging from tax incentives given to companies who hire retrenched people to creating more jobs in the government departments and agencies. I only hope that it will work.
It seems well and good when the headline reads “15,000 jobs every month”. I seriously doubt if that many jobs can be created in a month. Who will keep track that 15,000 jobs are indeed being created every month? Even if no jobs were created, who would know? If at all the jobs are really created, how relevant are they to the people who need them?
We have on one hand the government encouraging people to further their studies to get their Masters and PhD degrees, and we have mass job creation on the other end of the equation. The question is whether there is a match of those 15,000 jobs being created monthly to the highly educated society who have graduated from their Masters and PhD degrees. If the jobs being created are odd jobs, do you then tell the highly educated people to not be choosy and just grab the jobs available?
And then there’s also the RM5,000 incentive for people who to trade in their old cars. Of course nothing comes for free, the exchange comes in the form of a discount for the purchase of a brand new car! Come to think of it, if my old car is still in good and safe condition to be driven on the road, and if I am near the end of my loan or even finished paying up for it, I’m in for a bad deal. In this time, I would rather not have any loans to commit to. So if my old car is all paid up or coming close to being paid up, why should I get a brand new one and pay yet another loan for many more years to come? That RM5,000 discount won’t mean much to me. But the sale of the car, even when discounted by RM5,000 sure helps the car maker’s top line! So who really benefits from this incentive?
There are lots more loopholes of the second stimulus package that one can critically point out. But what’s the use? Because it really isn’t a smart budget that puts money in our pocket. So let’s just move on with life and spend our time more productively to figure out how best we can make the best of situations for ourselves.
More smart tips:
Related Websites 
