Sitex 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
I was pretty much in Sitex for nearly six hours earlier. This is the 20th year running for this annual electronic fair, and whao, you do get a lot of good bargains there that you can't get elsewhere.
Just take the set of speakers I bought today as an example. It's only an entry level speaker but at around 25 bucks, it is just too good. It's only twice the price of those rubbish speakers but it's definitely wayy better than them in terms of everything(and most importantly, sound quality). That set of computer speakers is sold at almost half price though. If clearing stock is their purpose, they have definitely achieved it because what I bought was one of the last few available sets.
That's not the only good bargain too, there's a lot of vendors selling laptops there with plentiful of free accessories. Heck, almost every item you buy there comes with free accessories.
Many will think that in a severe recession (source) such as now, and with future prospect looking bleak, such electronic fair will not be well received because consumers lose their confidence and fear a loss of buying power in the near future. That is however, not the case. At 11 when the fair has started, the halls were already crowded, but by 2, there were so many people at the fair that everybody is squeezed like sardine and moves together. When I say squeezed like sardine, it is not an exaggeration at all because at some places, it was so crowded that you can't even squeeze through to the opposite side. I will not make any blatant comparisons though because I do not have relevant information pertaining to past Sitex success.
Perhaps it is more appropriate to use another example. Now that people are poorer because of the recession, they no longer buy 16 gig iPod Nano. Instead, iPhone are sold out and 8 gig iPod Nano goes nearly out of stock at one Apple reseller and 8 gig iPod Nano starts selling out in the other. And you have to queue 20 minutes or more to buy an iPod too. Yea, people are "switching to cheaper alternatives" now that the economy is bleak. :). And did I mention there were a lot of people lugging a HD ready TV set each home?
Hmm, maybe people are bringing forward their expenditure for the sake of the discounts and see MP3 players as a necessity in our technologically prolific world.
Anyway, I have nothing against them since I am one of those people. I won't know whether sales of Sitex will drop this year but if it didn't, then that's good news (for the economy), maybe more so if private consumption doesn't make up only a small percentage of our GDP.
Hoho, I bought quite a lot of good bargains today. ~-~. By the way, the AFA post is updated with links to pictures already.
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Lesson in Economics
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20, "declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
Source : snopes.com
Well, I chanced upon this online but couldn't find the original source. Not that it matters anyway. A humorous attempt to explain tax system generally. If this isn't cynical enough for you, you can visit here for politics infused into this explanation. I found the latter too cynical (and crappy imo) for my taste so I'll rather stick with this story.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20, "declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
Source : snopes.com
Well, I chanced upon this online but couldn't find the original source. Not that it matters anyway. A humorous attempt to explain tax system generally. If this isn't cynical enough for you, you can visit here for politics infused into this explanation. I found the latter too cynical (and crappy imo) for my taste so I'll rather stick with this story.
Click to read entire content!
