Wow! Two generations to pay a housing loan. Can you imagine such a bequest? Malaysian progeny can now, of all things, inherit a housing loan!! Don't blame me for all those exclamation marks. It just shows there is no end to being shocked ... stunned ... shell-struck!

Way back in 1979, a fresh graduate earned RM1,000 per month. And the cost of a double-storey terrace house was RM55,000, that is 55 times a monthly salary. We were allowed to pay off the loan in 15 years. Then, the cost of a Toyota (before Proton was born) was RM12,000, that is 12 times a monthly salary. And we were allowed to pay off the loan over five years.

Today, a fresh graduate earns RM1,500 per month and the same double-storey house (or a slightly, smaller cutie compact) costs about RM300,000. In uncomplicated arithmetic, it means 200 times the monthly salary. And you are allowed 20 years or more to pay for it.

And now, (breaking news this) ta-da! two whole generations to pay for it!

Today, the cheaper Toyota saloon (after Proton was born) costs RM107,000, that is 70 times a monthly salary. And you are allowed almost 10 years to pay for it. Maybe breaking news item No 2 in the future would be that car loans too would be payable over two generations.

Today's big numbers are exciting. More accurately, exhausting. Can someone make any sense out of it? Better still, can someone do something about it? Let's make Malaysia a better place by 2010 - why wait till 2020?

Some things are simple enough. They don't need big brains - just clear, honest, straight-forward thinking. And for something quite as simple as this, if I may say so, there's no need to think out of the box - laterally, tangentially or whatever.

The solution may well lie in some simple God-given common sense.