Frugality is a false virtue

Someone sent me an email about how frustrated teachers are today. And the in the email were several works of students that made my day. I quote a few sentences from this one. ‘I am a boy. I am a boy because I am not a girl. A boy is a boy. I have two mothers and one father. They are mad. I am also mad. I hope they have plenty of money. And when they die I can have all their money….’ Actually I will love to have such students. The life of teachers must be hilarious. There was this MP who was invited to a trade association dinner. He started his guest of honour speech this way. ‘A car is a car. A small car is also a car. I drive a small car. You all drive big cars. My small car takes me here. Your big cars also take you here. I am smarter, right? Oh, he did not say all these lah. I just made it up. I think the MP was trying to impress the big businessmen that just because they were driving big Mercs and BMWs, they don’t make any difference to him. Maybe he was trying to educate them on frugality and not be show offs. The new catchphrase is boastful. But he forgot that lesser mortals are just lesser mortals. All show offs. He can continue to drive his small Japanese car, the lesser mortals will still want to flash around in their big continental limousines, yes to show off. Oh, I remember someone telling me that in paradise only the rabbis drive around in Rolls Royces.

Gems of Parliament

'Tapping into past reserves, instead of exhausting current savings, allows the Govt to act quickly to deal with future challenges.' The above is quoted from Jeremy Au Yong's article, quoting Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Don't use current savings. Use the reserves. This is another logic that lesser mortals can never comprehend. CPF, do you understand the logic? If you do, please allow the people to use their savings in the CPF in times like this instead of their little savings in their bank accounts. And many don't even have any savings and can only rely on their CPF savings.

World Bloggers Association

I have just founded the World Bloggers Association(WBA). I have proclaimed myself as the Emperor of this Association. All bloggers of the world shall now be my members and they must pay homage to me daily. They are also to pay a blogging fee for the right to blog in the free world of bloggers. The first two bloggers paying homage to me shall be appointed as the King of Eastern Blogosphere and King of Western Blogosphere. Those following behind will be appointed as Kings in their respective regions. And for those who are late in joining, they have my permission to appoint themselves as Kings of whatever their fancies. Redbean, Emperor, World Bloggers Association (WBA)

Extraordinary budget working

Public transport companies are going to cut fares! The sun is rising from the west! Did I hear it right? This is an industry whose cost can only go up and not down, so how can it drop fare prices and remain profitable? The extraordinary budget to the rescue. They are going to pass the savings to the commuters. Without this budget, prices will continue to go one way, up. Public transport is the only business that is dependent on fuel price, labour cost and equipment renewal. This is an unique industry. No other industry is affected by fuel price, labour and equipment renewal cost. That is probably why the cost of other industries do not affect the prices of their goods and services. Oh, there is another industry where the price must go up. Rentals and property prices. They must be dependent on fuel, labour and equipment renewal as well. I nearly miss this one. Oops, actually I miss a lot more industries and services. They all depend on fuel price, labour cost and equipment and the prices must go up. And there are industries or services that don't depend on fuel prices or equipment renewal, but the price of their services must also go up? How so? On the contrary, there are industries that depend on all 3 but the price of their goods and services only come down, or can come down. How so? Ah, extraordinary men with extraordinary skills and ideas. Only real extraordinary men can provide better services, better quality goods at lower prices or at the same price. The rest are all bull even if they called themselves supertalents. The only thing super about their talent is to collect super pay.

Where is the wow factor?

We have this extraordinary budget, marked by the first time that we have to dip into the reserves. Wow? Where is the wow factor? Why don't people get this feeling but feeling ordinary? $2.6b for family and $4.4b for homes. These together add up to $7b. Quite a substantial sum. If only they be given to the less than 1 million Singaporean households directly with each household getting $7,000, would it be more meaningful in times like this? And confining it to citizens only, the number of households could be just 500,000 and each household can receive $14,000 each. This will be the kind of angpow that will give the wow in the budget. The amount of effort put into dividing this sum under the budget is great and complicated. The amount given is so diversified that it would not create any ripple effect on the recipients. It is extraordinary to hand out such a big budget but not getting the feeling that it is a great relief from the people.