I think things are more expensive because of marketing. On the other hand, things can be cheaper too because of positioning.
For eg SQ and Air Asia. I'm so impressed by Air Asia actually. The girls are so hot, the landings were perfect I don't even know I landed, and they allow you to eat your own food onboard. Love competitive industries to the max!! Especially when people go all out to kill. WAHAHAHA! Still thinking of my previous entry.. hahahaha..
Anyway, the topics today are condominiums and diamonds.
I dunno why people rather stay in condominiums than private property. They would say you have all e facilities: swimming pool, gym, tennis court blah blah blah. Of course you have, cos you paid for it, and it's not a one-off payment but a monthly affair. Then you talk about feeling more secure with security guards at the entrance. But they are ah nehs and they are sleeping most of the time. If you stay in landed property, you can always have a fierce looking dog sleeping at the porch what! Oh by the way, Singapore is quite safe. I haven't even went into how small the condos can be. Seriously I rather stay in a re-sale HDB which is more spacious than pay for an overpriced cramped condo.
Developers are taking advantage of Singaporean's materialism to make money from condos! That is done by painting just another nice picture. The security, the facilities, the social status... And I think it's sick.
For example a piece of land, lets say it cost $1m. A developer can buy it and build a block of condo 30-storey-high. Assuming every floor he tries to make space for 3 households and a lift, the piece of land can house 90 households!! Ok, fine, 87 households to be precise.
But if you buy the same piece of land with $1m, you can build it say 3-storey high and you have a big space for yourself. Meaning you live in a space equivalent to 9 households! Most importantly, YOU OWN THE LAND! See, same piece of land, a developer can earn so much money!!! And tell me issit more prestigious to stay in a landed property or a cramped capsule nest? Why go take life and share parking lots with 87 other households and make your life so miserable? Accumulate the monthly maintenance fees you pay to the management over 10 years, you can own a private gym, or maybe add in a pool table by the side!
Done with condos, now to the diamonds. Firstly, diamonds are not as scarce as perceived by most people. Why? The answer is marketing. Marketing creates a perception!
Ok, then diamond signifies eternal love. Where did that come from again? Yeah, marketing. Can I ask a question? If that's really the case, why are so many couples divorcing? A marriage doesn't depend on a stupid stone!
To satisfy a modern girl's materialism, diamond makers come out with different classes of diamonds, or what they call the 5Cs if I'm not wrong. From the Cs, the can jack up the prices more. They actually have some standards to compare which I think is crazy! Who determines the Cs? Who is the one who tell you that a diamond that satisfy the Cs is better than one that doesn't? Not very difficult to guess right?
What has CUT gotta do with the quality. You can cut it into whatever shape you want what. Of course CARAT has gotta do with pricing. The bigger the costlier. But do you have to go down to the 0.01carat? And colour and clarity. If it has one small little impurity inside, does it really matter? And aren't all diamonds the same colour?? Don't tell me I don't understand diamonds. They are stones and will always be stones. Period.
The only diamond I had was a pair of diamond stud ear rings, a gift from my godmother on my 21st birthday. Guess what? Not very difficult to guess actually. Haha. I lost one of the ear studs, and that didn't bother me much. Not as much as the cheapskate HK ear stud I lost.
Sorry for the long entry but I really find it disgusting when things are way overpriced! Friends who still wanna buy condo please still buy condo, those who wants their tiffany proposal rings can still demand it from boyfriends. These are just my opinions and they are not important.
However, Vincent Tay, please jot it down somewhere. Thanks!
