8/09/2007

Celebrating National Day

As Singapore celebrates its 42nd National Day, Hsien Loong made a speech about the glorious achievements we have made for four good years of growth under his watch as the new PM. Among the many things to cheer about, he listed the following: 1. Our athletes are winning medals 2. Our Chefs are winning culinary contests ( should include all the Guinness Book of Records Singaporeans have achieved) 3. Our entrepreneurs are launching new businesses 4. Our students are excelling at all kinds of international events 5. We are gearing up for new and exciting projects, like the Formula One Grand Prix and integrated resorts 6. A clean and corruption free society 7. Disciplined and well educated workers 8. A cohesive, multi racial community 9. A capable and vigilant SAF and Home Team Then he went on to discuss about the problem of widening income gap and how the govt has put in measures to help those who are struggling to make a living. And there were many programmes like Comcare and Workfare to help needy Singaporeans. Actually a widening income gap may not be the real problem if the people at the lower end have enough to eat and are able to pay for their expenses. What is frightening the people and causing hardship and pain to the people is the constantly rising costs and money not enough. The galloping away of costs of essential services and basic necessities is the greatest failure of the govt. It is not a case of these costs cannot be arrested but more a case of a belief that profits are good for all these providers of goods and services. And the govt only needs to give some handouts when there is a need to. Thus the people at the lower end will forever be chasing for money to pay for the increasing costs. And whatever income or savings they have will never be enough. If the costs of living can be curbed and contained, there is no fear of a widening income gap. There is no fear of earning a little lesser as things are not going to cost more everyday. And there is lesser fear that savings, the CPF, the Medisave, will never be enough. There is no need for handouts. Give to the people by not giving. Rein in the runaway costs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Temasek & GIC are the main factors to push up cost of living, our leaders should know who is the main cost & who is behind it to gain more benefit from they poor fellows to conitinue to work hard to fill their never enough appetize.

Anonymous said...

I think it is ok to have a strong economy and high cost of living provided the wealth gathered from the gst, taxes and surpluses are distributed DIRECTLY back to the people.

right now, the money is shrewdly given as incentives for babies, education etc things that will help the future of the economy, whereas the older folks or anything that does not contribute in the future are left out as in written off.

Anonymous said...

This is a fair thought, not smart, but fair in my opinion..
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"NEXT 10 YEARS SINGAPORE WILL BE TRANSFORMED BEYOND RECOGNITION"
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Question: but what does that mean for the rest not involved with f1 or IR? does it mean 10 years later, they will suffer alot more?

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"RECORD 100,000 NEW JOBS"!!
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Question: Must be transparent with the employment figures and not just 100,000 record new jobs.. is that why there are suddenly so many foreigner here? Foreign/ Malaysian clerks, hawkers, painters, renovation contractors, sales girls, managers, engineers, doctors, lawyers... helping to bring up our population and contribute gst and cpf...
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Good for the coffer, but what has that got to do with us DIRECTLY? IS this good news or BAD news for singaporeans? Full and transparent details please!
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Also could we vote to decide whether to have the transformations/ new jobs or not as these may or may not adversely affect our livelihood depending on the answers to the above questions.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

we must think out of the box, find new ways to solve our problems. very true. we cannot stick to the same methods and ways of doing the same thing over and over again.

what works before may not work again with changing circumstances.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

the role of govt is to manage and distribute wealth as equitably as possible and raise the living standards of everyone, not just the super talents and the super rich.