Debt? Yes, Please.

This is a cursory lesson in human frailties. It is very easy to say, “Oh, this happened in a Third World Country so, obviously, these people are more liable to such acts of profligacy.”

Yet it happens, frequently, on a large scale Worldwide. Everywhere.

This is an article dated 21^st April, 2014, from the ‘New Straits Times’, a highly respected newspaper published in Malaysia:

“NILAI: Mention Felda LBJ and sad tales of a crumbling community brought down by greed from instant wealth would come to mind for the locals here.

The area was just an ordinary settlement until it was selected to be part of the Negri Sembilan technology corridor, a joint-venture project between the State Development Corporation and Tabung Haji, 16 years ago.

The 504 settlers grabbed the limelight back when the transformation saw their lands being acquired, making them "instant" millionaires. It was a dream come true that after years of hardship, these families suddenly had loads of cash to spend and their lives began to change.

Apart from indulging in luxury cars, many of the settlers opted for enormous houses with extravagant furnishings, including swimming pools. Many men also took new wives.

With these changes came new challenges and problems, especially after the money ran out. Many abandoned their huge houses, which are now rotting reminders of the once "instant" millionaires. Some settlers passed away while others chose to migrate with their children to cities.

Mohamad Said Sulaiman, 57, said the settlement, which was left vacant for many years, was picking up now due to surrounding development.

Many people, especially staff of the new academic institutions nearby, had begun to rent or purchase the houses left by Felda's first generation.

Checks by New Straits Times showed that the settlement seemed poised for recovery with interest buzzing from outsiders working in the surrounding area, including near the Kuala Lumpur International airport, located 30 minutes away.

Said said many were unaware of the history of Felda LBJ and how the settlement got its name.

He said it was visited by the then US president, Lyndon B. Johnson, who was said to have brought cheer to the residents.

"I remember my father telling us how ecstatic the settlers were when Johnson arrived and some people did not sleep throughout the night.

"Imagine a US president, with his entourage, coming to a small settlement. It was definitely a highlight of their lives," he said, adding that the settlement was subsequently named after him in honour of his visit.

"We were also told by our uncles that Johnson tried his hand at tapping a rubber tree during his visit."

“Most of the settlers were really touched as he was willing to get his hands dirty,” he said, adding that things changed after the residents were blessed with good fortune three decades later.

 Husin Alias, 52, a security guard and a second generation settler, who witnessed the disintegration of his community and blamed it on their inability to handle the instant wealth, said the settlers received between RM1.2 million and RM1.4 million in cash, depending on the size of the land.

“It was a lot of money, especially in the 1990s, and many did not spend it wisely. Big houses mushroomed, men began ignoring their families and responsibilities and started drinking alcohol, gambling and chasing women. It was sad that they allowed money to change them.”

 Husin said he was lucky that his family was wise enough to lead a moderate life. His parents built a modest house and divided the money among the children while keeping some aside for the future.”

  Some settlers fell victims to investment scams and became embroiled in longstanding legal battles that they had no money left to complete the construction of their homes. With no land to return to many were forced to find jobs as security guards or venture into trading, but their income was barely sufficient.

The Felda LBJ is now known as Kampung LBJ as it is no longer a Felda settlement. The settlement’s entrance overlooks the route to the new Nilai Polytechnic in Labu, Negri Sembilan.”

The Federal Land Development Authority (more commonly referred to as FELDA).

Quite clearly there will be names here with which you will be unfamiliar but this does not detract from the overall message that we need to explore.

This is something that happens, as I said in the introduction, Worldwide. It is a feature of life in the so-called ‘Developed’ countries.

That feature is called ‘insecurity’.

We, as a race, have been inundated over the years—thousands of them, with the idea that there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. H.G.Wells made a story about them called ‘The Time Machine’. Other authors, including the magnificent Isaac Asimov, have also made reference to this societal idea.

The fact is, that for most people, they are uncomfortable with the concept of having money.

Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But it is true.

We have this little maggot in our heads that says, “We should be rich. We should, deservedly, have lots of money,” and yet, having got it we get rid of it as soon as we can.

Why? Because we are uncomfortable with it, it makes us uneasy.

Our comfort level is debt. We are so accustomed to being in debt that not having that debt makes us uncomfortable.

The idea for this is rooted in the class system that has been around since ancient times. The Greeks and Romans certainly had the belief that there are people who were supposed to have money and then there was the peasantry and that they were required to root around in the mud doing the work that would keep the rich (and famous, perhaps) living in the manner to which they had become accustomed.

Note that these people had ‘become accustomed’ to being wealthy. It was, and is, part of their lifestyle, their persona.

It doesn’t take very much to find stories of ‘riches to rags’. There are those who have won great fortunes on lotteries and football pools that have subsequently “spent, spent, spent” until they returned to destitution.

A famous such person in the United Kingdom was Viv Nicholson whose story can be read, in part on ‘Wikipaedia’.

She is not alone. There are countless people who have received fortunes—large and small, only to fritter them away to nothing in a relatively short time.

We dream of gold but we comfort in having nothing. Paradoxical?

Just a part of human nature, part of that complex mix of our psyche that makes us all, individually, interesting.