A short nagging which I got over the weekend triggered this question in my mind. Why is it that the older generation and the younger generation are always at odds when it comes to this prickly issue? I have never been able to place a finger on the pulse of this matter.
It was last weekend when me and my parents went out for dinner at our favorite wantan mee stall. We ordered 2 bowls of dry wantan mee (Medium) and 1 small bowl. The bill came up to be RM10. This means 1 bowl of medium-size wantan mee is RM 3.50. That got my dad really fired up.. going on and on about how expensive it is, and the increase in price is not justified as the portion remains the same, and etc. Dad was talking about it for 15 minutes and that just got me so worked up. I told dad... "the RM 3.50 is well spent and it fills you up to the brim, and it is a real wantan mee. It's not like you are eating wantan mee without the wantan filling, and it has no BBQ pork". But, he was still going on and on about it.
When I start to think about it, there is truth to his grumbling. To the older generation (ie. our parents, uncles, aunties), RM 3.50 is indeed a huge amount. Back in the good ol' days, perhaps 30 - 40 years back, you can get a bowl of steaming hot wantan mee, delivered to your doorstep only at the price of 30 cents. And, once you are done with your food, you will only need to leave it at the doorstep and the man will come and collect it (That is the BEST example of excellent customer service!) RM 3.50 would have been able to feed a family of few (you can buy rice, vegetables and maybe an egg with that measly sum)
To the younger generation nowadays, even a 7-year old kid would scorn at being given a RM 3 angpau. I noticed when kids starts to pester their parents to buy something expensive worth RM 80 or more and their parents try to persuade them by saying it's expensive, the kids make remark such as "It's only RM80... it's very cheap, every month daddy and mummy gets a lot more money, why can't you buy this for me?" And, these remarks will be accompanied by watery eyes, and the next you know, they start bawling...
Scenarios like this are getting more and more common, if only one just chooses to open their eyes and ears wide enough when walking in the shopping centres. I find it apalling that kids right now take for granted the value of money; and instead make such careless remarks. Funny thing is, the parents just ignore them. If it were for my mum or dad, the first thing I'd get is probably a stern warning followed by caning at home.
I used to get excited when I see shillings on the floor; ie. those unaccidentally dropped by people. The first instinct to do is to pick them up and keep it in my piggy bank. Finders keepers.
Fast-forward to the present... Poeple will not bat an eyelid even if they see someone dropped a 10-cent shilling on the ground.
What is our society turning into?
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