2/07/2007
the magic of liberalisation
Liberalisation of Singpost
The first thing the news reader commented was that we could look forward to lower mailing cost.
Whew, I didn't know that liberalisation is such a magical word. We should go ahead and liberalise everything including the govt. Then all our cost will come tumbling down. HDB, LTA, hospitals, education....
And we can have all the locals to run for govt and the civil service. After all locals are also kaki lang now.
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2 comments:
This is excellent news. And yes, I agree liberalise the govt, such that everything is privatised.
This type of system has served Switzerland well for centuries. For e.g. senior govt officials have to have the people's approval for their salary packages. Translated to S'pore: the ministers will have to have their pay scales approved by the people. I cannot imagine the S'pore people approving of the salaries these millionaires are earning now — out of the taxes the people are forced to pay.
When this happens, the govt becomes the true servant of the people.
Years ago a Swiss model for Singapore was mooted. In certain areas, this has occurred. However the S'pore govt wields far too much power and there are virtually no mechanisms to check or limit the power of the state.
For e.g. the GST started off with a bearable 3%, income and corporate taxes were MASSIVELY cut at the same time.
Soon the GST will be 7% — an increase of over 130%! Now, just imagine how people would respond if the income or corporate tax were to grow by 130% — there would be rioting in the streets.
In any case, whatever the amount increased will mean that the govt revenue from that particular tax will also grow by the same proportion — all other things being equal.
Ah. But they're cutting the corporate taxes.
... and therein lies the nature of the state: one group is "sacrificed" for the benefit of another group.
Liberalisation example: Telephony.
Remember when the state owned and controlled the phone system? Yes, we had "free" calls for years, but calling overseas would make your anus bleed. And all the phones were BLACK, and it was ILLEGAL to connect anything on the line — like answering machines , which you had to buy form the state-owned telco.
Then the era of telecommunications de-regulation came about.
Now you can buy multi coloured phones, have cheap overseas calls, you can buy phones with cameras, mp3 and video players, you can have all-in-one fax-phone-answering machine — and CHEAP.
COMPETITION makes us ALL better as producers, and ALL better off as consumers.
PRIVATISE THE PLANET!
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