The Standard is Shifting

First time arriving at Singapore, my very first impression is Singapore is an expensive city. Every time I want to buy something, I keep conversing the Singapore Dollar to Indonesian Rupiah and everything seems so expensive. S$10 for Burger King, which in Indonesia you can get it at IDR50.000 or equal to S$6. Every time I buy stuff here in Singapore, I can never skip the conversing part and at some point I got stressed because of the expense I keep on making. Even for the very same item such as Deo Roll On, price in Singapore Dollar is more than in Indonesian Rupiah.

"Time heals" maybe that saying really is true. Just now I sat at Starbucks, sipping S$6.6 Caramel Frappe in size grande. It takes me almost four weeks to think that S$6.6 for a glass of coffee is something that worth to buy. Even before that, I just bough a brush with S$2.5 in the price tag (you can go to Indonesia, just to compare the price of the brush, hahaha....)

Maybe my standard of living really has shifted, or maybe because in Indonesia, I always spend amount of money in thousand rupiah, and now all the zeros are gone and 6.6 seems a very small number compare to 1.000. At some point I should really get used to this "less zero" thing. S$3 for 10 slices of bread is maybe considered cheap, and I should stop nagging about that.

If I really think about it. Compare to my full salary per month, my monthly stipend (or allowance) is almost twice as big as my full salary. Well, this really is part of Economic Theory. Everything is about the Supply and Demand Curve. But now there's a (not very) slight changing in my income. So the Demand Curve now shifted. I've been tempted to shifting my expense to a better quality goods. Everything I've ever used before, now starting to feel like the Inferior Goods. 

Now the so-called "Normal Good" for me is transforming, slowly but sure. change in income is followed by change in lifestyle. Maybe deep down inside, I really feel that this really is the time to upgrade my lifestyle from "down there" to "up here". 

It is a natural thing that happen along my life. From the College Student budget to Civil Servant budget and now the Graduate Scholarship budget. Everything that I considered as expensive, now not so much, it matches with my income. As long as I can afford it, maybe it is time for me to enjoy a higher level of lifestyle.

What....?
I got this over a glass of my third ever glass of Starbucks Coffee. Two times in Indonesia, now's the third. 8 years I've been serving as Civil Servant and I've been to Starbucks only twice. Now only a month being a Graduate Scholarship, I've been once to Starbucks. I just hope that it won't be the last time. hahaha...

A bit cocky eh....
I can only laugh when I'm contemplating at The Coronation Plaza Starbucks. It seems silly, indeed. Maybe rather than keep on fighting this lifestyle, I just have to embrace it and start to enjoy my life. Once or Twice a month to visit Starbucks maybe not a bad thing, or maybe I should even have the Starbucks Card. I can only enjoy this for the next two years (assuming my grade is minimum B-). 

The fact that actually everything is more expensive here, should shift my demand along the curve, which my quantity demanded is decreasing and create a new equilibrium. But since my income is raising, so the demand curve is now completely shifted to the right and make another new point of equilibrium. I can demand the same quantity as before even though the price is more expensive. There's a new balance here. Let's just call it the Singapore Equilibrium.

It is the law of Demand and Supply Curve, it's something natural. Now as Darwin once said, "Survival of the fittest", now it's my turn to follow the new equilibrium and make peace with it. As long as my income can cover all the needs I need, just let it be. Even though there's part of me that still keep on screaming, "It is expensive damn it!!!!"

Even though I hate Economics (a lot), I have to admit that most of the times, I'm thinking like an economist. For everything there's a value for money, there's also cost and benefit. I will still trying to find the best-est deal for everything, the cheapest options for everything, but as long as the quality is not as cheap as the price. Because sometimes I think that Singapore is mostly imported for everything, so I believe that if you choose things to be imported, then you get to choose the best things to be imported. So in general (I wish I'm right), the quality of stuff in Singapore is better. 

Basically Economics is how you use your limited resources to fulfill your unlimited wants. Now my resource is (a bit) bigger, so I can provide my self a bit better. My standard can be shifting, but I really hope I can still true to my self. Humble (yeah right!) and always strive for free stuff. If you can get stuff for free, why pay? hahahaha..... 


image source:
http://www.econ-courses.com/parke/132summer2004/archives/P5130104a.jpg