Cost of Living subsidies and cash the biggest vote winners

 Rising cost of living in this most expensive little island is no joke. Just to be alive with very basic necessities, walking or cycling in the parks, drinking kopi in kopitiams, would need at least $1,000 a month to get by. And this sum is not stagnant but increasing everyday. $1,000 pm or $1,500 pm is the poverty line in Singapore but could be a lot of money in many developing countries.

The cleaners in hawker centres are now paid more than $1,500 pm or else no takers. The tissue sellers would have to walk a lot to collect this sum of money to survive. There are many overheads, yes, overheads that every Singaporean, working or not working, would have to pay without having to leave their homes. And these overheads are also increasing and adding to their cost of living, to the cost of living of the retirees and the not working seniors who have graduated from the working class to join the retiree class.

The govt has come up with many schemes and subsidies to alleviate the financial burden and fears of not working and retiree class. Though the sum cannot come near to the million dollar salary they are getting, to those without an income, the few thousands a year, from CDC vouchers and sometimes cash, subsidies, rebates and once in 60 years SG60 cash, mean a lot to them. To those thinking of selling tissues or becoming cleaners, these handouts could come in handy and keep them away from taking these desperate steps to stay alive and be fed, and still a roof over their heads.

When a needy person is asking for $2 for his paltry meal, $450 cash or $850 cash, to those that qualified, is like striking 4D. It would mean having full stomach for a month or more and can drink kopi in the kopitiams. These windfalls are vote winners in the not working class when money is hard to come by but a necessity that they cannot do without, would be felt everyday.

As the govt introduces more of such subsidies and handouts to extend the net, to many of the recipients, it is hard not to give their votes to their benefactors, the govt. Never mind where the money is coming from. They would not and many could not think much about anything else. A little money in hard times, in extreme conditions, can bring tears to those that desperately need them.

The ruling party has struck on a winning formula, by designed or otherwise. How could the opposition parties beat this. Subsidies and hard cash are real, very real and life savers to the needy, even temporary and may not last. Where got govt give you money? And a few thousands in a year. This cannot happen anywhere in the world, only in the richest country in the world.