What is this hoohaa about welfarism?

Welfarism seems to be a taboo word. Everyone is so frighten of it as if it is leprosy. But are we talking about welfarism when we ask for the surplus of reserves or profits from investing the country's reserve to be returned to the people? The money belongs to the people. The capable people managing the reserves are managing the people's money, not someone else money. There must be a formula to return some of these profits back to the people. Or else where or whose pocket should the profit go to? More mega projects? Let's give back the money to the people who needs them instead of upgrading of parks and beautifying this and that. A couple of hundred bucks maybe worthless to the have's but mean a lot to the have nots. And returning profits from investments to the people is not welfarism. They get a share of the nation's wealth which they are part owner, and only from the profits. Not a permanent feature where the people can demand for it regardless of profit or loss. It will make more sense for the people to feel and share the wealth of the nation than just seeing the money grows and big fat bonuses being paid out to the managers while they get nothing.

Preparing for the inevitable

This is one of the title in the Today paper on Khaw Boon Wan's crusade to clean up the messy health care system. He talked about the problems of the ageing and dying and about the insurance scheme. He is again working very hard. But I am terribly worried when he said this in response to the query on the small payout of insurance schemes on hospitalisation fee. 'I hope of offer more diverse insurance plans...Many have told us that for a payout of $300 per month for 60 months, they would rather self insure. Clearly they prefer higher payouts and I presume they are willing to pay higher premiums.' Who are they? Who are these rich they? Please don't presume too much. Is preparing for the inevitable also means higher premium is a sure thing to come, and mandatory?

the complaining culture

Complaining is a Singaporean culture. It is in their blood. The people only know how to complain. From the internet, the man in the street, the elite and in Parliament, we all complain. And we don't even know that we are complaining, unless we prefix it with the words, 'feedback.'

the poor had it (part 2)

The poor had it (part 2) In the first part I wrote about having to pay more when a commuter did not have the exact change. There is another ruling which many have forgotten but I am not sure whether it has been amended. This is related to bus cheats. There are bus cheats and there are careless or absent minded commuters. Some will deliberately forget to flash their EZ link cards, some exit early to pay less and some simply forget. Let's not discuss the cheats as they will have to pay a heavy fine, even jailed, if they are caught for cheating a few cents on bus fares. The moral of the story is to cheat more, in the millions, and in style, if one wishes to cheat. Then one can still be respected as a talent. Poor commuters should not try to cheat. Ok my point is that if a commuter forgets to flash his card on leaving the bus, he will be charged the full fare from depot to depot, I think. I am not too sure about this. But definitely more than the actual fare if he has flashed exit. So if he boards a bus at the second last depot, flashes the card in but forget to flash out, he may have to pay the fare from one end to the other, the maximum fare. In short, the commuter has to pay more. But he has the option of writing in or explaining to the transport operator, at some office in some corner of the island which would probably cost him more than the over charge if he bothers. Many don't bother as it is not only tedious and troublesome, but more costly. So the poor commuters will have to pay more for a mistake, or forgetfulness, with no intent to cheat. What happens when there is a system error or card reading error? I am twiddling my thumb. Who pays for the error?

what's the problem?

[b]'At the end of the day, we may have superduper GDP growth but if much of that growth is creamed off by foreign-owned MNCs or just by a small group of large companies or only the already rich, then what is the point of all this GDP growth?' Manu Bhaskaran[/b] Is that a problem? If it is, blame it on globalisation. No super talent has the answer to such an impossible problem. If I am the rich and benefitting from it, why should I come out with a solution that will make me less rich?