How much would the wantan mee cost?

With the price of flour going up by 20 or 30%, how much will that plate of wantan mee or char kuay teow cost? The beef ball noodle, the fish ball noodle, hokien mee, mee goreng, and don't forget the chapati and the roti prata. All these are the staple food of the ordinary Singaporeans. How would this affect their daily diet? Would they now have to cut down their consumption or have to tighten more to keep themselves going?

Money in the decision making process

Why are Singaporeans so sceptical about the CPF and the annuity schemes to think that the govt is after their money? Is this perception fair? And now we have Singaporeans thinking that the public transport system and the ERPs are all there for the same purpose, to get more money from the Singaporeans instead of solving the transportation problem. Everyone now is thinking the same kind of thought. Can we blame them?

No further need for charity shows

With automatic insurance schemes starting from birth to 20 years old, with CPF, Minimum Sum Withdrawal and Annuity Schemes, and also lease buy backs, Singaporeans should be adequately provided from cradle to death. There should be no need for charity shows in the future when all these are in place for the new Singaporeans. And all these are provided by the Singaporeans own pockets. No need charity and welfare from the govt as well. We have taken for granted that all Singaporeans can afford all these schemes in addition to supporting themselves and their families.

Govt going into selling insurance business?

First we have compulsory annuity schemes. Now we have automatic Medishield for kids. And more schemes for youth and young adults on the way. Where else can one sell insurance in a large scale to the masses in such an easy manner. Compulsory and automatic. The latter, ok, can opt out within a month after automatic inclusion. And at $30 annual premium, I concur that it is affordable. What if the opt out rate is too high to make the scheme not economical? Would it then become compulsory? It is a good scheme and good for the people? Why not make it compulsory in the first place? Or why not make compulsory annuity be automatic and allow the people to opt out of the scheme if they do not want to? The premium cannot be a key consideration to decide whether it is compulsory or automatic I supposed. $30 versus $1000 or more per annum?

Curbing property speculations

Mah Bow Tan announced new rulings to curb the hot property market before it starts boiling out of control. The fear of a spiralling high property prices running beyond the reach of the average Singaporeans is a great concern. And now this concern is also creeping into the fear of FTs who will also be aversely affected. And in turn the whole business cost. What seems to be lacking is a clear strategy as to what the property market should be like and how Singaporeans of different income level would be accommodated in the big scheme of things. We have the HDB market, the condo market, the landed properties and the high end market. The different markets can be structured to serve the different sectors of the population, local and foreign, carefully planned to benefit the real home owners and the speculators, balancing a need to keep properties affordable and at the same time a lively speculative markets. We are now seeing piecemeal solutions to a very complex problem.