Before Brunei become what she is now, a great majority of our people still lived off the land. Nobody really died of hunger if he didn't have a regular paying job. Just plant a tapioca in your backyard, and eat it. Now it's not the case anymore.
Nobody has land large enough to cultivate the basic food he needs to feed his family, so he needs a job to earn the money to buy it. There are no more cases of homestead, everybody has to buy his abode, or otherwise rent it. To be able to do so, he needs to earn income.
There's no way for us to get back to the idyllic past of early 1900's, when losing income merely means people go back to bartering what they make, eating what they sow, and living on what they build. Now you have to buy everything!
Today, you need someone all powerful to provide everyone with the job and income to live a basic life - either an all powerful feudal lord, one who has monopoly control of all major factors of production, such that he has no fear of people withdrawing money/income from the system….
…..or a government that knows how to strike the right balance between creating income for the people via spending, and ensuring that the money has value enough to purchase an adequate supply of goods.
Anyway, SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI - MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN.
