7/09/2007

Political party manifesto 4

I used to think that the people that form the lowest strata of our society and struggling to live a decent life may be just about 10%. With the shrinking dollar and a higher cost of living, this group could be much bigger. Any family of 4, with two school going children and has a household income of less than $3k a month is tough. And any family with 4 or 5 kids will need at least a $4k income to get by. For living decently in this island, we shouldn't be talking about subsistence level living or we might as well use the poverty stricken Africans as our yardstick, a $3k to $4k family income is barely enough. And if prices are going up, as they are expected here, surely, every year, the income will get smaller and smaller. Another way to look at it, for some individuals, is to say, forget about these people. They buck up and work harder or they live as they are. But political parties have to adopt a different stand from private individual views. They are to work for the people, all the people, at least that must be their declared objective. This must be clearly defined in their manifesto and supported by their actions. If they can't make it materialised, at least they must be seen to be pushing for it. There are at least 50 to 60% of the voters that will buy such an idea.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are at least 50 to 60% of the voters that will buy such an idea.

Not to worry, the incoming 2 million grateful voters will certainly put their votes to good use and maybe by then the subsistence poverty stricken types will be replaced by pmebs luxury homes class thru natural attrition??

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

we shall boost up our service industry to service the new rich.

our manufacturing is gone. recall the 4 million smiles campaign. it is a good starting point to make our people more service oriented.

Anonymous said...

when i retire i hope i can work in macdonald.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

i will join you. my other option is petrol pump attendant.

Anon.Dimwit said...

Ang dao, I know of a family who may be living way below substinence level. The wife's a homemaker, the husband's a normal teacher.
Guess what? Years ago, they hv 2 kids. Now I saw them again - got 5 liao! The eldest boy's not more than upper primary age.
Maybe they got help from both families-in-law etc. But still super siong la!
The wife claims she love kids. Seemed more of a depressed lady after her 1st birth. Hubby's a non-communicative person.
All the best to them :)

Anonymous said...

It may be affordable in China where everyone wanted more than the govt allowed but here is a bit difficult to have many kids.. he shud have anticipated the costs and the difficulties..

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

i cannot sympathise with such families. they are living beyond their means, and unless they can afford it, they are creating tragedies for the future.

living within one's means is very important. they cannot fool around with the lives of their innocent children.

minimum $250k to bring up one child to university level. unless he is contented to let them be waiters and waitresses or cleaners. i am not degrading these professions, but income at these levels are not attractive in anyway to live comfortably.

Anonymous said...

Like that die lah! How can people afford to have children. And how can people who have children make sure that their kids can make a decent living in this harsh economic situation. No wonder young people are shunning marriage.

Abao said...

Can work in NTUC Fairprice aso ma RedBean. Auto inclusion in "union" and subsidized healthcare...

Anon.Dimwit said...

Talking abt youngsters shunning marriage. An alarming trend in Taiwanese society today is that the youngsters r not marrying & reproducing.
The no. 1 reason?
They say the political climate in their country could not be good n secure for their kids..

Wonder what may be the no. 1 reason here? Or maybe no.s of reasons? ;(

Anonymous said...

Young people often cite the reason that they could not even give themselves a decent life, so how could they hope to give their children what they themselves could not have. It's really a worrying and pessimistic outlook for young Singaporeans.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

fairprice only needs women cashier lah. and old people will be too slow to count money, and eyes blur blur some more.

petrol pump attendant needs to be careful. so pump slow slow also ok. and cleaner than wiping tables and washing dishes.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

funny thing about nature is that those that should be producing, with the ability to feed more, are not producing. those who are financially strapped are very fertile and productive.

strange creation.

Anonymous said...

Fairprice cannot employ older workers because the stacking of goods, which most of its employees are involved in, is actually quite heavy stuff eg rice, cases of fruits, cases of cooking oil, milk powder etc. I doubt older workers can handle those jobs.

So, what can old people do? Too slow for counting money and not strong enough for stacking goods.

Anonymous said...

employ china girls then, at lest can count, can stack and can pump

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

you only think of china girl doing pumping and i only think of old folks doing pumping.

unfair competition.

Anonymous said...

you mean grannies?

you try it lah, i mean the china girls.. once you do that you will never want to go back to the singapore girls again..

if you dun get the world's best service with them you can take away my 2 balls