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2/14/2007
opt out or your are in
Tan Kim Minn wrote a letter to Today calling Singapore an OPT OUT country. You need to opt out in many things or else you are in. He quoted Dependents' Protection Scheme, Medishield, Medisave and CDAC as examples. Then there are the Sinda, the Muslim Mosque Building Fund, and of course Hota.
But the mentality here is that it is only a few dollars, or it is for your own good, or it is for the general good. So it is alright to opt you in unless you take all the trouble to opt yourself out. The problem is that many people did not know what they have been opted in.
And that is their problem for being ignorant or lazy to find out or to opt out. It is their own fault.
Yes it is their own fault — even though the state is WRONG to automatically included everyone with out first seeking individual permission.
ReplyDeleteWhen there is a state, it is the individual's responsibility to be constantly vigilant.
If my perceptions are right, I like where this is heading: toward a voluntary society, where you have the CHOICE to be a part of the state-systems or not. For e.g., if you have better coverage, or don't want any coverage at all, you can opt out of public health system. HOWEVER, when you need assistance, you have no right to claim it from the system you opted out from.
And this is good, because in time alternatives will spring up in the free market.
Over tha last few months, I sense a better attitude in embracing the ideas of privatisation, individual-governance, an emphasis on individual responsibility and freedom.
If this continues, I might have to keep my red passport, and become a volunteer citizen :-)
indeed there are some loosening up. but the signal is still confusing. what is needed is a few more citizen lees to take the lead to show that it is ok to discuss issues openly. but the latest attempt failed in the sense that it gets personal immediately.
ReplyDeletei thought getting personal is only a disease of bloggers and netizens.
It doesn't matter about "confused signals". Anything The State does is a contradiction anyway.
ReplyDeleteOn the individual level, it is for every person to decide for himself: "Do I own my life, or does does the state own my life?"
And the old saying still applies: Those who are incapable of governing themselves will be governed by someone else, which is why the people get the government they deserve.