[caption caption="Google"][/caption]In such a consumer society as we live in today, people are forced to be dissatisfied with what they have in order to make economy grow. People find their happiness by accumulating resources and measure their self-image by the assets they have. Self-image for some people is the most important. For creating self-image, whatever it takes, they will pay the price (even pay it with credit, not cash). So, the society tends to justify environmental damage and social degradation, provided that more resources can be consumed. Economic growth like this is simply unsustainable.
Well, in the literature (as i know what i learned in the University), the study of economic starts with a simple story. Think of a box (the economy) that produces all goods and services. And inside that box, there are multiple agents mobilizing the exchanges of goods and services. The point is to, then figure out a way to enlarge or expand this imaginary box by way of maximiliing utilities (happiness, in economic terms) for the greatest number of agents. This illustration seemingly straightforward about growth. Then i ask myself, has growth translate to a betterment in our living conditions?
In this article i will explain a lot and mix between social and economy. This article is different from my two previous article “Where are we heading? Will the economy recover in 2016?” and “Pengaruh Ekonomi AS dan China Terhadap Fluktuasi Nilai Rupiah”, you can read it in this web (kompasiana). Because in my two previous article, i explain a lot only about economy.
1. JAKARTA
[caption caption="Near my office"] [/caption]
Now, i live in Jakarta and work in here. So, here we go. Jakarta as the epicenter for business and politics by which the flow of resources is perpetually flowing in and out of the country, the city has among the poorest infrastructure and mass public transportation facilities. So sorry to say this. The high grow rate is, instead, epitomized by the city’s worsening traffic congestion, new shopping malls, and increasing amounts of environmentally unfriendly industrial waste. There’s also a growing problem in creating more public spaces. For example, everyday i walk to my office, and what i hate is there’s no spaces for pedestrian. So, i walk at the street and shares spaces with motorcycles and cars.
What i hope is someday there would be specific dedicated zones for cars and motorbikes. But where short distance travel trips were most frequent, accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists would be prioritized, while roadways must be designed to make driving uncomfortable. A spatial approach is badly needed to design convenient pedestrian zones and plazas, protected sidewalks and bike lanes, accessibility for people with dissabilities or parents with strollers, bike-sharing facilities, as well as more green and blue infrastructure that motivates and facilitates people to walk instead of driving. Then, the bad thing that i’ve seen so far is that there are just few public spaces in Jakarta . So, i always see in weekend that the Jakartans always confused how to refresh their mind, so they don’t have options. So, they always go to the malls and waste their money in there.
Then, let’s discuss about the traffic. Fighting against Jakarta’s traffic during peak hours burns us out and burns our money –for nothing. At some point, driving a car starts to be symbol of immobility rather than mobility. There have been different approaches introduced to deal with Jakarta’s widespread urban congestion, namely the TransJakarta busway, mass rapid transit (MRT) and monorail systems, electronic road pricing (ERP), the elimination of fuel subsidies or the increase of commercial parking rates.
Well, now motorcycles and cars have become a common standard of comfort for all social classes, despite the many hours of traffic jams. Applying legal economic instruments to cope with congested commercial zones, such as a three-in-one vehicle restriction or the ERP scheme, will not be fully effective due to the lack of reliable public transport system and car pool facilities.
The ERP i knew when the first time i came here. My brother and my sister-in-law introduced me in some zone that is ERP (Electronic Road Pricing). Implementation of ERP as a replacement for the 20-year-old traffic restriction policy popularly known as three-in-one is actually the concept of the internaliation of transport externalities, where every road user that contributes congestion must pay amount of money that is used to subsidize public transport riders.
As we know that last month (February), Jakarta always got heavy rainfall. For me, based on what happened in last month, in addition to the traffic congestion, floods should be the other major reason for the government to seriously consider the idea of moving the nation’s capital to a new location. The unbearable agony of Jakarta’s floods makes the idea very realistic. Jakarta is so densely populated and dirty that it no longer can cope as the nation’s capital. With Jakarta being the crowded center of government, commerce and education, the central government and the House of Representatives must seek the best way to avoid flooding and traffic congestion in the city.