The insensitivity of the elite

The lesser mortals shall not be envious when the super beings splashed their wealth. The lesser mortals must know their station in life. What's wrong with super beings spending their own money? This is the ethos of an elitist society. The expensive cooking class, oops, it is a culinary course, is the talk of Parliament. Cooking class is only conducted in community centres for the Ah Sohs at $50 for 4 lessons. What Chee Hean said is correct. It is a private matter for people to spend their own money. But being a top civil servant, flaunting of wealth is still not the right thing to do in times like this. What the story tells is that top civil servants are paid so handsomely that they must think of ingenious ways of spending them. Too much money that they have problem spending. Would a $100k personal grooming course or facial treatment be attractive, or a new hairdo? A tattoeing course may also look interesting. This reminds me of the Peanut Theory. What will be considered peanuts for such high paying elite? $600k or $1m? I think we will have problem motivating them with more pay in the next salary increment exercise. Anything less than a peanut will be meaningless.

How much does Singapore have?

MAS's foreign reserve is valued at $240 billion. GIC's portfolio is well over $148 billion. And Temasek is worth more than $185 billion. These are numbers as at Sept 08. If there is no overlapping of interest, it works out to an incredible $573 billion! Now what is the latest number given the collapse of the world financial market which has led to many tycoons jumping onto the equivalent of our MRT tracks? Whatever that is left must still be a large number. And this is only those assets that are officially valued.

Rentals, property tax and other costs still up!

Conrad Raj's article in the Today paper mentioned that rentals in Chip Bee Garden under JTC has just gone up by nearly 50%. A David H wrote that his property tax for year 2009 has gone up by 55% from year 2008. And this month CAAS raised the airport taxes at the main Changi terminals from $21 to $28 while the Budget Terminal is up from $13 to $15. Small feats actually. Small increases are affordable.

Bloggers forming an association?

It is reported in the media that a group of bloggers is trying to form an association for bloggers and it has been given the nod by the authority. And it intends to cover the River Hongbao event and other sporting events and is talking to the ministries, probably trying to get permission to do so. I am going to cover any event with or without permission. That is what blogging is all about. You decide what you want to do and what you want to post. Getting approval and permission are the last things in the minds of bloggers.

Encourage ostentatious lifestyle

This is the way to go. Not being ostentatious, being shy about spending is not healthy to the economy. Hsien Loong has taken the lead by donating $500k to set up a scholarship foundation. This is on top of the increment that he has donated earlier. I was hoping that this will set the ball rolling and more rich people will also take out some money for similar causes. There was no follow up. But that does not mean that no one is following his example. They may have done it quietly in their own ways. They are either too shy or shun ostentatious flaunting of wealth. For a time like this, these people should be encouraged to spend and spend. The media should do their job by celebrating their ostentatious lifestyle and this may encourage others to do so. It will be good for the economy. For those who do not know how to spend or share their wealth, just stand outside a MRT station with a sack of angpows and hand them to the passerbys. No need for any mean testing. Anyone who is willing to take the angpows will be needing them. Let's be ostentatious and spread the goodwill of spending and giving. No need to be shy about it.