At the same time, I also notice that not all businesses can count on sustainability. By definition, industries like tourism(look at Dubai) are instantly hit by the change of seasons and people putting off luxuries during hard times. Dollar shops or local convenience stores have higher prices because they don’t have economies of scale and do it I suppose for survival reasons. Expediency is natural and easily called upon. There may be businesses who may have no option but to conceive of ever more imaginative ways to extract cash.

Granted, some people are nicer than others and maybe their circumstance has less to do with their mode of behaviour than their pockets. In which case, we can learn to hate them. With so many choices to make, normally shoppers are blinded and ignorance rules. Everyone will be better off being vigilant in new surroundings and watching out for traps.

In what seems like a dog eat dog world, maybe we should concentrate on our neighborliness. Rebutt the cut-throat approach of the free but unfair laissez-faire market. Operating under the assumption that people will be better people if they have less worries, education needs to be stepped up so that people can accomplish success(ie don’t start businesses that fail two years after) and government in its might should provide a safer safety net for the socially vulnerable. Individualism and competition have their places but so do social cohesion and moral outlook.