2/08/2008
Spare a thought for the less well off
George Yeo urged firms not to increase prices unnecessarily and to spare a thought for the less fortunate.
'Mr Yeo urged businesses not to forget the less fortunate, particularly when times are hard.
He said, "Inflation, because of high fuel and food prices, is a problem. And it is a concern for all Singaporeans, especially for those who are less well-off.
"I also hope that those of us who are in business, yes, we have to adjust prices, because the input costs are high, but where it is not necessary to increase prices, it's good to spare a thought for ordinary Singaporeans who will be affected." '
A very surprising call actually. Times are hard? Since when? We are in an economic boom, golden years, full employment, everyone is getting richer with housing prices shooting to the sky. What hard times?
Prices did not go up yesterday. And who have been jacking up all the prices? And who have been saying that it can't be helped?
Do these big organisations, including the hospitals and transport companies ever spare a thought to the people when they raised prices? But they did. They made sure that the increases were all very affordable.
Maybe George is living in a different paradise. The rest are still partying every night in the land of possibilities.
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10 comments:
George Yeo is a good man, he is trying to help but businesses have to survive. George, you do know that less business means no money for rental, salary, cash flow, taxes, stocks and no employment?
It is good that you want to businesses to spare a thought for the less fortunate but has the government does enough for them too.
Sigh, as usual, nice words are always spoken during CNY.
actually you are right. if the business cannot charge high prices, how to pay for high rental and high salaries and more gst?
the economy must be free and everyone allow to charge higher. and the doctors and lawyers can charge even higher and tell people how talented they are to be paid millions of dollars. and with they kind of fees, they will surely be very well respected in our society.
the more one can command, the more respectable. only stupid manufacturer made instant noodles to make a few cents from the poor buggers. the good and talented only know how to make millions.
i always thought that talk is cheap.. does it costs anything? someone once said .. thoughts without action is abortion? therefore the best way for anyone to spare a thought for the less fortunate is to donate generously to the charities instead.
The Government must first set an example, not by doing what it tells businesses not to do like increasing GST, ERP, parking fees, rentals etc. We know George Yeo is a good man and wants to help, but in this case his words sound hollow and lack of faith indeed.
but all these increases are unavoidable. they are caused by external factors. and that is the tooth.
i wudnt just form an opinion or repeat after what others had said. i would be abit apprenhensive about these image consultants reports we often see in the papers, i guess we are a cynical lot. if i can express my opinion based on observation alone, i would say that the most outstanding public figure who consistently work tirelessly for the underprivileged local populace is lily neo.. she is among the few who really puts the money where the mouth is, is a good person and a real asset to the country. i wish we could have more people like that here.
we started off with these type of people ages ago.
she is very different. she comes out as someone who is comfortable with what she has and money is not on top of her list of priorities.
sorry, your line of reasoning seems abit ambiguous.. how different or comfortable is she compared to the rest? are u suggesting that the well off would be more kind/ generous/ less greedy compared to the poor?wouldnt poverty be eradicated if this is so?
i am not too concern about the rich being generous. that is a personal choice and we cannot blame anyone who choose to practise charity begins at home.
i am disturb by the fact that public organisations, given a monopoly, set up by using public fund, exploit their privilege position to make more profits which go to private shareholders.
they have a social role and public responsibility to serve the people and not making indecent profit for the sake of profit.
these monopolies could afford to be less calculating, more generous ..
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