Monday, August 13, 2007

How To Talk Like A Politician (Part II)

Given the recent turmoils in the little tea cup of Boleh-Land, it's so inspiring to see how some people are talking crap like politicians. Without further ado, we will start with the familiar price hikes.

Scenario - How to increase the price innocently:

Step 1 - Divide:

"The lorry is not set to carry only a can of milk, there is no reason for its (the milk) price to go up" - a Boleh-Land minister commenting on the increase of canned milk prices after the petrol price was hiked by a whopping 30%

His Main Point:
  1. The price of canned milk shouldn't go up because the lorry is carry 'literally hundred cans' of milk, thus the marginal increase in cost for each can is 'negligible'.
Point He Shunned:
  1. The price of canned milk has one and only one factor: the cost of transportation, and the increase in petrol will only affect people in only one way: in terms of transportation cost.
Step 2 - Compare:
  1. To drive home the point everybody in Boleh-Land is so damn lucky and blessed, we should remind everybody the 'hefty prices' people in other countries in UK, Japan, US are 'suffering'.
"Look, our government is sacrificing for the sake the people and we have subsidized enormously on the oil price. You don't believe? In Japan the oil price is X, in UK it is Y, and in Spain it is Z, where X, Y, and Z are all numbers greater than the oil price in Boleh-Land (after conversion of currency, of course). I wonder why those Japanese, Britons and Americans aren't flocking to Boleh-Land in droves, hey, Boleh-Land is soooo good and cheap, right?

Step 3 - Give an Innocent Look :

This step is entirely optional and the politician won't give you this look actually. Only the poor people who are screwed will have this look.




How To Apply:
This will be left as homework for the reader. ;)

4 comments:

Zen said...

lol wth is with the cat it's like pussinboots!

The Soothsayer said...

Have you been having a bath together with a pussy again?

Cuppa Chai said...

Disclaimer: That guy in picture isn't me... I will make sure I have pants on when showering the cat. Cats like birds ya know? ;P

Jimmy L. said...

1000 cans of milk. Say 30% rise in a trip -> For RM 100 worth of diesel, 30% implies RM 30.

Split across 1000 cans of milk... thats just... 3 sen per can.

But missed out consideration of supplies required to make milk. Say a can of milk is made from 10 components (can, preservatives, additives, paper to stick to can, employee transport cost...) , and each component requires a RM 100 trip. Then we have a total of 33 sen increase for every can of milk.

That flat rate across all products. So cheaper products will see a greater ratio of increase.

Say a can of milk was 50 sen, then now it's 88 sen. Wah 66% increase! How come petrol increase 33%, milk increase 66%? Tipu orang!

If a can of milk was RM 2, then now its RM 2.33. Wah, milk producer so good, increase so little only, even though petrol increase 33%!

So, we have it, the cheaper the products the more the % increase. That's why cheap products always kena. iMac dealers barely even moved their prices.