The peanut fix

We used to buy a pack of peanuts while drinking our Anchor or Tsingtao beer in the kopitiam. That was a great way to live, a lifestyle for those with a few dollars to spend in the night. With growing prosperity, the simple peanut is no longer satisfying. Not because it is not tasty anymore. It is not expensive enough to fit into a new lifestyle called Rich and Famous. Now we have expensive wine and caviar. People's appetite grows with time and affluence. The more they have the more they want and the more they spend. The most revealing quote of Singapore's history is that $600k is peanut. At $600k, the peanut is still being sneered at, simply because those people have too much money. It is now more difficult to get a new high with a $600k peanut. The peanut needs to be worth more than that. Yesterday a $1m peanut may give a good kick. Tomorrow may be $5m and later maybe $100m. It is all relative and all drug addicts know how the dosage needs to be increased to feel the same way. There is no way out in the life of a drug addict. The only way to return value to the humble peanut is to find users that are used to a $2 pack and 2 bottles of Tiger beer. Start it at first base, just like the initiation of a new drug addict. A small dosage will be more than enough to get him high. Though the cycle will be repeated and eventually the new addicts will still be craving for $10m, it is still a reprieve and cheaper that way. Not all drug addicts start with morphine. Many grew up in the back lanes of yesterday running around barefooted. And the first stage to satisfy their desires is always the unassuming peanuts. When they are at the morphine stage, it is too late. The end is near.