Ibrah 51: 27.5m

Malaysia’s population has increased to 27.5 million last year from 22.2 million in 2000, according to the latest census by the Statistics Department.

Malays were the largest ethnic group in the country, comprising 50.1 per cent of the 27,484,596 total.
They were followed by the Chinese (22.5 per cent), non-Malay Bumiputeras (11.8 per cent), Indians (6.7 per cent), and others (0.7 per cent).

Non-Malaysian citizens numbered 2.25 million or 8.2 per cent of the population.

Malays made up the highest proportion of the population in Terengganu (95 per cent), Putrajaya (94.6 per cent) and Kelantan (92.7 per cent).

The highest proportion of Chinese could be found in Penang (42.9 per cent) while the greatest concentration of Indians was in Negri Sembilan (14.3 per cent).

Seventy-one per cent of Malaysians now live in urban areas, compared to just 27 per cent in 1957 when Malaysia achieved independence.

In 2010, Malaysia also recorded 475,816 births, 17.5 per 1,000 population, versus 129,327 deaths or 4.8 for every 1,000 population.

Fertility rates were highest in the Bumiputera community at 2.6, down from 3.5 in 2000, while it fell to 1.5 from 2.6 among the Chinese and to 1.7 from 2.5 in the Indian community over the past decade.

Chief statistician Dr Abdul Rahman Hasan said the lower fertility rates could be explained by the growing number of women who are entering the workforce and increased access to contraceptives.

“When women participate in the economy, the age of marriage will go up.


[Bukan bias gender mahupun anti-wanita, tapi ini realiti. Kita mula bergerak menuju Jepun atau China atau yang lebih dekat Singapura, dimana kadar kelahiran yang rendah memeningkan pemerintah.

Kemajuan yang kita kejar, dalam masa yang sama menidakkan sesuatu yang lain. Kita semakin kurang 'melahirkan' generasi baru kerana semua orang sibuk mengejar kareer.

Nabi Muhammad menggesa kita meramaikan umat, supaya lebih ramai Islam dibumi ini. Sama-sama kita fikir.

Wallahualam]

Ibrah 50: Tax Cuts - A Simple Lesson In Economics

Economics 101

You may have seen this before but it still rattles me.

Tax, tax cuts and how it all works...

Sometimes Politicians can exclaim; "It's just a tax cut for the rich!", and it is just accepted to be fact. But what does that really mean? Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, we hope the following will help.

Tax Cuts - A Simple Lesson In Economics

This is how the cookie crumbles. Please read it carefully.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. 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 $7.

The eighth $12.

The ninth $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.


So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one 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 meal by $20."

So, now dinner for the ten only cost $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 eat for free. But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share'?

The six men 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 eat their meal.

So, the restaurant 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 paid $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 eat 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 me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2? 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 dinner, so the nine sat down and ate 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 at the table anymore.

As noted in a review below, this was not written by me.
No way of knowing who wrote this, but to the best of my knowledge the content is accurate.