如果连制造优雅社会的利弊都要用金钱来衡量，那么我们是个怎样的社会？

An article by Today published yesterday, titled Being gracious makes dollars and sense, has caught my eye, especially the opening sentence: In an increasingly competitive society, what is the economic benefit of gracious living to Singapore?.

Why is there a need to measure the economic benefit of having a gracious society? I have always thought that being gracious and courteous is something very fundamental in the society; something that is inculcated in us from young. It is to make the society a better place for all of us to live in and it’s definitely not about dollars and cents. It’s something that is 发自内心, and not something that we are reminded or forced to do constantly.

Equating a gracious society to an economic benefit 是件很可笑亦很可悲的事. It just makes me wonder what has this society become? Does the society do only things that derive economic benefits? Why must everything be measured in dollars and cents? Must we monetise or attach an economic value to everything we do? What does this show of our moral values? Are we telling the future generations that we must ensure that whatever we do makes economic sense and we should not do anything that does not give us any economic benefit?

优雅社会，应该是人类最基本、发自内心的，真心要每个人过得更好，而不是经过任何经济考量的。 Has the society become too profit orientated that we have forgotten the intangibles in life? I guess this is Singapore Inc, where profits is the No. 1 priority…