Kuala Lampur, March 14 -- In my younger years - when dinosaurs roamed the planet and selected shopping malls - I felt the government forced people to calculate mentally actual and displayed prices for their own good. Delay mental stagnation by keeping people's brains on their brain-toes. A public service. Lower nationwide Alzheimer cases.

Years later, it turns out the whole matter emerges from neglect and a genuine disinterest in consumer protection. Consumers, or voters, are several notches below our leaders' focus, apparently.

Far below official trips to countries with daylight savings, admonishments of foreign governments unsuitably disinterested - the shock and horror! - in the human rights of inhabitants thousands of miles away fro...