{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1389650,
        "msgid": "too-high-a-price-to-pay-1447893297",
        "date": "1998-03-30 00:00:00",
        "title": "Too high a price to pay",
        "author": null,
        "source": "JP",
        "tags": null,
        "topic": null,
        "summary": "Too high a price to pay I believe many sectors of business will be badly affected by the present monetary crisis. Let us take, for example, the travel bureaus in our country which are almost entirely dependent on outgoing Indonesian tourists and, to a lesser extent, on the incoming foreign tourists, who need guides or inland tours arranged by travel bureaus. However, with the exchange rate at more than Rp 10,000 per U.S.",
        "content": "<p>Too high a price to pay<\/p>\n<p>I believe many sectors of business will be badly affected by<br>\nthe present monetary crisis. Let us take, for example, the travel<br>\nbureaus in our country which are almost entirely dependent on<br>\noutgoing Indonesian tourists and, to a lesser extent, on the<br>\nincoming foreign tourists, who need guides or inland tours<br>\narranged by travel bureaus.<\/p>\n<p>However, with the exchange rate at more than Rp 10,000 per<br>\nU.S. dollar, many would-be tourists cannot possibly pay expensive<br>\ntours and travel, a fact which has resulted in many travel<br>\nagencies going bust!<\/p>\n<p>For many years, I subscribed to Reader's Digest at the yearly<br>\nsubscription rate of Rp 47,400, but this was before the crisis.<br>\nWhen the reminder to renew my subscription came, I was surprised<br>\nto find I would have to pay Rp 275,400, or 5.7 times the old<br>\nsubscription price. I understand why there was a rise -- the<br>\nagent in Jakarta has to transfer the subscription amount in U.S.<br>\ndollars and the exchange rate of the rupiah against the U.S.<br>\ndollar is still fluctuating -- and that it is a matter of course<br>\nthat the subscription rate has been raised accordingly. Anyhow, I<br>\nregret that I have had to terminate my subscription.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot help wondering that the agent of foreign magazines<br>\nand other foreign reading materials will have a hard time to make<br>\nends meet, with the many employees the company has to keep<br>\nbusiness running.<\/p>\n<p>If I refer to my experience during the Great Depression of the<br>\n1930s, when the prices went up with inflation, there came a time<br>\nof deflation when prices of commodities went down because the<br>\npurchasing power of the people became weaker daily when<br>\nunemployment was rampant. I vividly remember that at that time I<br>\ncould buy a meal of nasi pecel, rice and vegetables in a peanut<br>\nsauce, for just 0.5 cent of a guilder.<\/p>\n<p>A. DJUANA<\/p>\n<p>Jakarta<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/too-high-a-price-to-pay-1447893297",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}