the poor rich middle class

'They often feel ignored and mercilessly squeezed.' Said Christie Loh. This is the strongest language ever appeared in a main stream paper. If she wrote this a few years ago, wonder what kind of reaction she will get. Christie is referring to the middle class group that have been left out of all the assistance by the govt and unable to find jobs. And also the sandwiched class, a group that earns between $2,990 and $7260. And they need help. My god, with this type of income they need help! How then do one expect those on govt aid to live with $230 or even $400? And their problem extends to not being able to find jobs or jobs that will pay them half of what they used to get. The PMET, Professional, Managers, Executive and Technicians, the fallen talents of our own citizens, cannot find jobs when unemployment is passe, when we have created so many jobs. What is wrong? Why are our talents not employable and we need to find more foreign talents to replace them? Old? 50 or 60 considered old? Leaders like LKY, Chok Tong and Boon Heng should conduct lectures to all the CEOs and HR Managers about the value of being old. Wisdom, experience, contacts, networks, are what age comes with. Oh they are untrainable? Why train them to do new stuff when they have acquired so much skills and experience in their profession? Can't they be recruited to do what they were doing before? Are those jobs extinct or taken over by younger foreign talents? And old cocks cannot learn new skills? Boon Heng should tell them what he is doing now. A completely new portfolio, to look after older workers, a silver industry. Was he in this field before? Definitely not. And it is new and he can do it. What the....

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.

landed properties, good and bad news

Bad news, good news 6.5 million population is bad news for those living in landed properties. You can bet that they will be next in line for land acquisition to build high rise flats. And under the old policies, they are unlikely to get back the full worth of their properties. Now the good news. The govt is amending its land acquisition rules to pay market price for properties acquired. Now many people are going to sleep peacefully knowing that their wealth will be protected. This will give a lot of confidence to the high net worth people or potential rich migrants coming to our shores. They will not be shortchanged and they can happily go about investing in landed properties.

6.5 million, let's go for it

Some noises were heard in all the little corners about the 6.5 million population that we are expected and will be living with. There is no U turn in this. All the thinking and planning have been done. And everything is green, everything is good to go for 6.5 million. Things will be so good when we get there. Today's paper, Lim Boon Hee also questioned the wisdom of this move. There are so much fear and uncertainty as this issue is very new and no one of the calibre of citizen Lee have spoken out. My reading is that all the brains in this island have thought over this issue and all agree that this is the best way to go, or we will perish. When we were 1 million, we will perish. When we were 2 million, we will perish. When we are now 4 million, we will perish. Let's try 6.5 million. Maybe we will survive better. The people must have faith in the govt and the planners. Let's do not understimate their ability to plan for our future. The people shall support this great plan and stop complaining. Even the opposition are also awed by the immense possibilities and opportunities that 6.5 million people will provide that they are dumbfounded. Let's go for it.

the miserables are better off

Leong Wee Keat and Gracia Chiang wrote a very interesting piece of article on the rising hope of the people at the bottom. 'Wages finally rise for the poorest households after 10 bleak years.' In 2005, monthly income for each member of the poorest household was $270. Now it is $300. A whopping 6.6% increase in real term. This is a great upliftment of the lives of the miserables. They added, 'It's not as if their wages have gone up, though. It is just that their household size is shrinking and, with the brightening economy, more of them have been able to find jobs.' Just shrink the Singaporeans and their HDB flats will become much bigger, or a mini will be as big as a Mercedes, relatively. So are they getting richer? I am still scratching my head. This is another interesting statement in their article. 'Economists said the same thing in more elegant terms.' "There were some concerns that the lower income groups wre not benefiting from globalisation and were hardest hit by overseas competition," said Citigroup's Dr Chua Hak Bin. With the results, we are finally seeing some of this growth trickling down.' Very elegantly said. What were Leong Wee Keat and Gracia Chiang actually saying?