The international dumb asses

If pay be the criteria for intelligence, these must be the dumb asses in international politics. Russian President Vladimir Putin S$113,000 pa French President Nicolas Sarkozy S$480,000 British PM Gordon Brown S$534,000 German Chancellor Angela Merkel S$544,000 Irish PM Bertie Ahern S$620,00 These dumb asses were so shortchanged that they didn't know their market values.

My take on the mean criteria

With means testing becoming a reality, let's guess what the criteria will be to qualify people for medical subsidies. Starting at C wards. First condition will be living in rental flats. Personal income not more than $800 pm and household income not more than $1,500. Also there must be no savings and the Medisave account must have less than $3000. For B2 wards, subsidies will be eligible to those living in 3 rm HDB flats or equivalent. Personal income should not be more than $1500 pm and household income not more than $3000. And Medisave should not be less than $10000. For B1 subsidies, only for those living in 4 rm HDB flats. Personal income less than $2000 and household income less than $4000. Medisave account should be less than $15000. I think these could be the possible conditions for means testing. Anyone in better conditions than these should be warded in B1 or A wards and pay accordingly. The poorer people will thus benefit from lesser people competiting for the subsidies while more people will have to pay the full rate, providing more subsidies for the poorer people. Brilliant right? What say you people?

Response to ERP rates

I watched a few interviews conducted by the media on TV last night. A couple responded in shock. How could it be, so high, it was going to affect their livelihood. Then another put it in another way. Too many cars on the road. And he recommended that the COE price should be raised to $80k. That would keep the car population down. The latter response is more in line with my earlier post. You either make car ownership so costly or driving on the expressways so costly, otherwise the congestion problem is not going to go away. But of course there are many other ways of minimising the problem and these will take time and cost. The raising of ERP charges or COEs are short term measures and have been short term measures for many years. The real solution is still awaiting to happen. And the 6.5 mil population will only make things worst.

Giving is stairway to hell

I was reading Sheralyn Tay's report in Today on what Charles Hampden-Turner said at the conference on National Volunteerism and philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility. In his speech he said everything that we need to know about the false assumptions and farce of charity and means testing. He does not recommend blind generosity, the singlemindedness to give and think that that is the road to paradise, a good and generous act. One side just give and the other side just receive, instead of rewarding success, we reward failure. And related to means testing is that the recipients will try to outdo each other to be the '100% certified slob' to qualify for handouts or subsidies. These people may even give up job opportunities or other means to help themselves as those means would make them less eligible to qualify. Thus there will be 'a race to the bottom.' And that was exactly what the public were slapped with during those charity shows when pathetic cases were paraded to show how bad their conditions were. Does anyone bother about the pride and diginity of these poor souls? Or poor souls need no pride?

Getting squeezed or living in comfort?

Siamak Adibi, a foreign talent, and Darren Chong, wrote to Today about their concerns over the issues of limited resources and a growing population. Siamak is considering leaving if the condition gets worst. Our hospitals and public facilities are over taxed. People have to queue and wait for hours to see the doctors even with appointments. Public parks and utilities are stretched. Then Pritam Paul, another FT, dismissed such concerns and praised the great and liveable conditions we are having. He compared to India when the conditions were appalling and chastised Singaporeans for not knowing the paradise that they have. Mark Lee posted another letter saying that we, as a first world country, should measure ourselves against first world countries and their conditions of living. We should be comparing ourselves with Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, Montreal or Copahagen or similar places, definitely not with Manila, Mumbai, Bangkok, Hanoi or Jakarta. What Mark said is simply not to distort the truth by using poor and inappropriate examples. This is as good as lying.