straw that breaks a camel's back

If there were to be anything that can break the camel's back, it will be this 2% GST. And it comes at a time when many people are sceptical that their lives are turning better. I dunno who advised for this move, it is an advice that will lead to tremendous ground shift.

gst to the rescue

Just a few days back, Low Thia Khiang proposed for more assistance for the poorer Singaporeans. This was shot down by Vivian who challenged him that if going the Low Thia Khiang way the country would go bankrupt. Last night Hsien Loong said we must give more help to the poor Singaporeans or they would be left behind by globalisation. And Hsien Loong was not worried about bankrupting the country. Well, with all the GLCs and Temasek companies registering great profits, with our foreign reserves hitting new high, and with great returns from investing them, surely we have plenty of money. And the economy is having a great run. This is the best time to help the poor. And we can also change the definition of earnings to include capital gains. There you are, we will have a lot of money to help the poor. Still not enough, no problem, raise GST. We just need to be creative, if we need to spend more, create more. How can we ever bankrupt the country if we think a little and spend within our means? Without raising GST we may not have enough money to help the poor. And only the poor needs to be helped. We cannot raise GST to subsidise the rich, especially those earning half a million or more. No more pay rise for them. Oops, payrise is not subsidy. Must give them the pay rise they deserved or they will not work or will migrate. I think 10% will do.

dark cloud over parliament

I could see all the disturbed faces when Hsien Loong announced 2% increase in GST after the news programme. To announce the increase at this time just didn't sound right. When I look at the expression of every MP in Parliament today, all their expressions told a very different story. The only person who was optimistic and full of enthusiasm was Hsien Loong. For the rest, the glum on their faces was the best answer to what were in their minds. Even the newscaster Hwee Goh's expression was anything but convincing that everything was fine. A dark cloud seemed to have hovered over the whole Parliament. The forummers in cyberspace would have a lot of theories to shout about.

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?