Measuring Value

[Rehman]

GIRDING my loins and all associated body parts to spend another few thousand dollars on cigars (as a means both of celebrating the release of my retirement funds and anticipating a time when I will have spent the lot on cigars) I find that I have subconsciously adopted a new unit of personal currency – The Cg (pronounced “Cg”), present exchange rate c.RM70/US$20/EUR15.

We aren’t rich, you see. We are (or have been) mostly working stiffs: wage-earners and salarymen, slaves to the machine, grist to the mill, corporate drones building hives more than making honey, protected against our lives’ quiet desperation by the great & good institution of the Employees’ Provident Fund [Malaysia's equivalent of the US' 401K, I think].

We smoke cigars not as accessories enabling the flash of a Lange & Sohne and lacquered cufflinks on the wrist below an Esplendido, but to impart to the mundane toil and struggle of our lives occasional moments of grace.

For us, the value of cigars is not weighed on the scales of the be-yachted and their wanna-bes. These aren’t whimsical indulgences of conspicuous consumption. Whatever cigars mean to those of us who continue to acquire and consume them as their prices explode under the brutal institutionalised sadism of tobacco taxes, the cost of doing so must be factored into personal fiscal management.

Hence, the innovative financial instrument, the Cg. Embroiled as I am at present in the adventure of relocating out of the big city, I find myself managing these expenses in terms of the Cg. For instance, refurbishing the small-town pre-war shophouse I’ll be living in will cost only about 150 Cgs at present rates.

In a Cg-denominated economy, the apparently disproportionate cost of cigars renders everything else reasonably inexpensive. You could have a long weekend in Barcelona for 100 Cgs. A new fridge would cost a mere 20 Cgs; a college education, oh, 10,000 or so, with twinning programmes.

A grand bottle of wine can be had for 10 Cgs; a good one for just one; dinner and a movie for Cg5; major surgery, Cg500. It becomes much easier to evaluate priorities and choices. (Would I rather have a 50-inch 3D HDTV or 80 cigars? I’m thinking, I’m thinking…)

Cg1 = US$20 because that’s how much I’d have to pay a local retailer for the least expensive of my favourite Cuban cigars, which at present is the Vegas Robaina Famosos. Your rate may vary.

[El Presidente]

Great post Rehman

Looking back I can't afford most of the great things I have enjoyed over the years

I wouldn't give up those experieces for anything in the world.

Such a short time here. Not sure there will be a humidor where I am going (though I suspect if there is, lighting the cigar won't be a problem).

I value experiences, feeling the exhillaration of living is an aphrodisiac I cannot get enough of.

[Wil]

Not sure there will be a humidor where I am going (though I suspect if there is, lighting the cigar won't be a problem).

Beetles might be a problem tho.

[Jesuscookies]

Nice post Rehman. Nothing like decompressing after a long day with a fine cuban. It really is too bad that politicans and do gooders have acted so reprehensibly in the taxation and demonization of this product.

0cg's to tell them to F@#$ off!

Enjoy.

[sama]

brilliant!

[Leopolis Semper Fidelis]

Such a short time here. Not sure there will be a humidor where I am going (though I suspect if there is, lighting the cigar won't be a problem).

Roberto, you wouldn't really want to end up in That Place, would you? Forever and ever...?

Rehman: what a well-crafted piece!

[Rehman]

Thank you all!

Looking back I can't afford most of the great things I have enjoyed over the years

Which reminds me of the great jazzman Eubie Blake, who said on his 100th birthday: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd've taken better care of myself."

[Montaigut]

Such a short time here. Not sure there will be a humidor where I am going (though I suspect if there is, lighting the cigar won't be a problem).

Rob: I have it on very reliable sources that the place does have a humidor. Not only that, the stock is to die for. I am also told it is called hell 'cause there isn't a light to be had anywhere...

[Colt45]

We can live without cigars, without wine, without a lot of things.

But then, are we really living?

[Omskakas]

In college we used to measure cost with beers. One beer was about 3,5 € in a bar. If a beer was cheaper than that we were "saving money". More cheap beers you drank more you saved.

[Habanos2000]

thanks for the insight Rehman. I'm now going to measure everything the wife buys in Cg's. I feel quite the battle coming on.

[PigFish]

I like the way you think and write amigo! Cheers to you!

With that being said I think very differently than you. I actually focus more on my Cg as a rate of exchange whereas Cg (as a variable) represents that of the smoking experience related to cost and not necessarily affixed to an individual or typical cigar. I am looking to change my version of Cg over time and increase my Cg and acquire a greater value of Cg over my life time. Cg then represents a simple function, perhaps expressed as Cg=E/C where C is the cost of the cigar and E is the gratification of the experience. As you can see Cg then varies by the cost of the cigar and by the subjective evaluation of the enjoyment of the event.

Cg will then increase with a good smoking experience while it is also affected by the cost of the underlying cigar. A great inexpensive cigar provides the highest Cg.

In any event you got a lot of people thinking with your post, including me and for that I thank you! -Piggy

[kal]

It certainly got me thinking , especially that my first box of MC 1 cost me Cg 1.05 ....41 years ago.

Over the same period the price of a BigMac merely increased by threefold.

[CanuckSARTech]

Well said, and an interesting proposition.

I don't measure things in Cg's, but instead I have my own currency - Visa's, as in, how much more room do I have left on my Visa? If it's enough for a box or two, I'm set!

[dicko]

Classic post Rehman!!!