Some were hoping that Arab Spring will come to Asia, especially China. Some hope that it will come to paradise island. Arab Spring is coming and spreading. The first stop is in Greece. Now a bigger one is happening, of all the imaginable places, New York and Boston. Now, where are these two place located on planet earth? The USA of course.
Thousands were marching in New York, to the Stock Exchange and Wall Street. They want to tear down the greedy financial houses like Goldman Sach and the likes. The greedy bankers and their destructive ways are proven as the new cancer of the finance industry and is ruining America and the world. They need to be stopped.
Greed is good to the Wall Street robbers. But Greed is definitely unacceptable to Main Street America, the average Joes are suffering while the robbers in Wall Streets are asking for more and more pay and bonuses. And of course Washington and Congress were the accomplices that are aiding the robbers to continue to loot the average Joes in America.
The Arab Spring is starting in the streets of the USA.
10/03/2011
Retiring plans getting topsy turvy
Not only that Singaporeans cannot retire gracefully, I mean the average working class Singaporeans, they now have to start life all over again like a 20 something. They have to start to find a job, to start to save, to worry if they will still be getting the same share of CPF contributions, not because they are going to start another family, but to pay for housing which should have been paid long ago, and the ridiculous medical bills akan datang.
How did we arrive at this pathetic and desperate position when we were one of the biggest savers in the world? We saved 50% of our income, then slowly reduced to slightly below 40% today. This is still an awesome sum of money to save for a life time, but only to realize, not enough leh. Now Ah Kong and Ah Mah must start saving, and to work, to fight with employers for more CPF. This is like the saying, ‘boh geh’ still want to eat peanuts.
This is the ultimate, and par excellence, in retirement planning of a first world nation. Suddenly everything is just a fleeting dream. The govt is now working hard to make employers pay CPF to the oldies as if they were short changing them. Even their income got to be the same as the young twenty something.
Bull. Let’s face it, not everyone is a LKY or an Emeritus Minister that can keep on thinking of getting bigger and bigger pay as they age. Not everyone is a super talent minister that can be appointed as Chairman here and there, and directors everywhere, to collect more and more pay.
The oldies should be retiring and live on their savings, and taking life easier. Go for a different kind of pursuit, at their own time and own pleasure. There are just so many jobs that the oldies can do, at the same pace and quality as the young. No kidding, our body and system age with time.
We thought our great savings and retirement plans were first class. But we did not bargain for some jokers to throw in the spanner half way, to empty our nest egg with ever increasing housing and medical fees. Now the nest egg is nearly empty. And the oldies panic. And everyone panic.
Who in the first place emptied the nest eggs of the oldies? Now all the policies on ageing and retiring is turning topsy turvy, expecting the oldies to do the contrary, to demand for jobs, for more pay, for more CPF, to save some more. And they are expecting the employers to hire all the oldies when the latter could pay for less with so many foreign talents waiting and knocking at their doors. What a joke!
Ok, Ah Kong and Ah Mah, please line up and open a savings account with POSB, and put in $1 every day and see it grows. Then when the time comes for retirement, the money would have grown, and no more worries. Sure, dead people sure got no worries.
How did we arrive at this pathetic and desperate position when we were one of the biggest savers in the world? We saved 50% of our income, then slowly reduced to slightly below 40% today. This is still an awesome sum of money to save for a life time, but only to realize, not enough leh. Now Ah Kong and Ah Mah must start saving, and to work, to fight with employers for more CPF. This is like the saying, ‘boh geh’ still want to eat peanuts.
This is the ultimate, and par excellence, in retirement planning of a first world nation. Suddenly everything is just a fleeting dream. The govt is now working hard to make employers pay CPF to the oldies as if they were short changing them. Even their income got to be the same as the young twenty something.
Bull. Let’s face it, not everyone is a LKY or an Emeritus Minister that can keep on thinking of getting bigger and bigger pay as they age. Not everyone is a super talent minister that can be appointed as Chairman here and there, and directors everywhere, to collect more and more pay.
The oldies should be retiring and live on their savings, and taking life easier. Go for a different kind of pursuit, at their own time and own pleasure. There are just so many jobs that the oldies can do, at the same pace and quality as the young. No kidding, our body and system age with time.
We thought our great savings and retirement plans were first class. But we did not bargain for some jokers to throw in the spanner half way, to empty our nest egg with ever increasing housing and medical fees. Now the nest egg is nearly empty. And the oldies panic. And everyone panic.
Who in the first place emptied the nest eggs of the oldies? Now all the policies on ageing and retiring is turning topsy turvy, expecting the oldies to do the contrary, to demand for jobs, for more pay, for more CPF, to save some more. And they are expecting the employers to hire all the oldies when the latter could pay for less with so many foreign talents waiting and knocking at their doors. What a joke!
Ok, Ah Kong and Ah Mah, please line up and open a savings account with POSB, and put in $1 every day and see it grows. Then when the time comes for retirement, the money would have grown, and no more worries. Sure, dead people sure got no worries.
10/02/2011
The Smartest Man in America
President Thomas Jefferson is often considered to be the smartest President in U.S. history. What is most interesting is that Jefferson warned of the damage that would be caused if the people assigned control of the money supply to the banking sector,
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
President Jefferson’s prediction has unfolded exactly as he said it would. Banks and Corporations have done what no enemy could accomplish: they have destroyed the American way of life.
Banks have:
• Crashed our economy with easy credit and lax lending standards
• Left many American’s homeless
• Caused 401Ks to evaporate
• Raided the public treasury of billions of dollars
Corporations have sold out America. Corporations have:
• Outsourced American jobs
• Used tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share
• Used profit as their only measure of success
The above is part of an article copied from tacticaldefensellc blog by Jim Lubbad. Read it carefully and think Singapore and how it can be similarly affected if things continue the way it is. We are being sold the idea of everything expensive is good, especially housing. The people are all deep in mortgage debt, and smiling at the paper gains of their properties. When deflation hits, looking very imminent, they will all lose their properties and become homeless. The bigger the housing loan, the faster will their properties go. First comes high inflation and follows by high deflation, the perfect formula for taking away the homes they sold to the home owners.
But we are safe, at least for the early buyers of HDB flats when the loans are mostly paid up. The new buyers, beware. The millstone on your neck is heavy.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
President Jefferson’s prediction has unfolded exactly as he said it would. Banks and Corporations have done what no enemy could accomplish: they have destroyed the American way of life.
Banks have:
• Crashed our economy with easy credit and lax lending standards
• Left many American’s homeless
• Caused 401Ks to evaporate
• Raided the public treasury of billions of dollars
Corporations have sold out America. Corporations have:
• Outsourced American jobs
• Used tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share
• Used profit as their only measure of success
The above is part of an article copied from tacticaldefensellc blog by Jim Lubbad. Read it carefully and think Singapore and how it can be similarly affected if things continue the way it is. We are being sold the idea of everything expensive is good, especially housing. The people are all deep in mortgage debt, and smiling at the paper gains of their properties. When deflation hits, looking very imminent, they will all lose their properties and become homeless. The bigger the housing loan, the faster will their properties go. First comes high inflation and follows by high deflation, the perfect formula for taking away the homes they sold to the home owners.
But we are safe, at least for the early buyers of HDB flats when the loans are mostly paid up. The new buyers, beware. The millstone on your neck is heavy.
The elusive Singaporean Dream
Education is the tool to a better life, a leveller for everyone, regardless of his station in life, to move up the social ladder. It is true. Many from very challenging families have made it to become ministers and millionaires.
But that was history. The students will read in it in their history books of who and who from such a poor family and now so successful. A good education, particularly a university graduate, is like a life made. A graduate is expected to feed a family well, own a decent house, and a decent car. Actually the polytechnic graduates did far better than the university graduates in the industries.
The new story, graduates are driving taxis, graduates cannot find employment, graduates ended up working as temporary employees, or simply jobless graduates. They are also many stories of depressed graduates who are no longer the sought after son or daughter in laws, the prize catch.
A university or polytechnic degree is not the same anymore. Not only that the end result is dissimilar, the cost is also spectacular. To many graduates, or their parents, it is diminishing returns or actually a loss making enterprise. The cost of raising a children and putting him/her through university is so prohibitive and the returns so marginal. Some may question if it is worth the while or is there something wrong with the education formula?
A university or poly graduate is not a passport to a good life, or not guaranteed like in the past. The dream is getting more elusive. So what if you are a graduate? It is not the same anymore. You need to be an exceptional graduate, as 30% of each cohort is now a graduate.
But that was history. The students will read in it in their history books of who and who from such a poor family and now so successful. A good education, particularly a university graduate, is like a life made. A graduate is expected to feed a family well, own a decent house, and a decent car. Actually the polytechnic graduates did far better than the university graduates in the industries.
The new story, graduates are driving taxis, graduates cannot find employment, graduates ended up working as temporary employees, or simply jobless graduates. They are also many stories of depressed graduates who are no longer the sought after son or daughter in laws, the prize catch.
A university or polytechnic degree is not the same anymore. Not only that the end result is dissimilar, the cost is also spectacular. To many graduates, or their parents, it is diminishing returns or actually a loss making enterprise. The cost of raising a children and putting him/her through university is so prohibitive and the returns so marginal. Some may question if it is worth the while or is there something wrong with the education formula?
A university or poly graduate is not a passport to a good life, or not guaranteed like in the past. The dream is getting more elusive. So what if you are a graduate? It is not the same anymore. You need to be an exceptional graduate, as 30% of each cohort is now a graduate.
10/01/2011
Give me your money or else…
While many debt ridden countries are queuing up in Beijing for the dough, some corners of America are screaming that the Chinese economy is going to bust like the Japanese and the Americans. Would an economy that is going to collapse have the money to offer to the beggars in the queue?
For decades, the western countries, including Europe and the US, have been living in great and bountiful times. They were dining and wining in the best restaurants with the best steaks they could buy, on borrowed money and borrowed time. On the other side of the globe, the Chinese farmers and factory workers were working their guts out just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Anything extra, any leftovers, will be put into the kitty.
The Chinese were not rich, but they did not over spend. They saved every cent possible for the rainy day. The West was a different story. There was no rainy day. The rain will never come, only good times. They forgot that their good times are borrowed times on borrowed money. There will be no more colonies to feed their extravagant life styles.
The day of reckoning is here. Those who were prudent, thrifty and spent within their means would have lesser to worry than those who flaunted their wealth and consumed more than they could afford to. And while their sprawling straw houses are burning, they are wishing that the little mud houses will go down as well.
Of course some knew their houses are burning. They are being burnt and needed help. Some still don’t think so and wishing and willing others will be burnt down so that they can clap and say, I told you so.
Some will put the blame on the Chinese peasants for saving too much and spending too little. The financial crisis is the fault of the Chinese. And when the Americans went to the Chinese with hands stretching, the Chinese obliged to help stabilise the world financial crisis and saved the day for the Americans. The Europeans are following the Americans to Beijing, with hands outstretched. Some corners were slyly suggesting that the Chinese were doing it not for altruistic reasons. Some, like the great thinkers and journalists here will be asking the Chinese of their intent, as if the Chinese were harbouring some unspeakable sinister motive for giving out their money.
No, they would not question the altruism of the Western empires, of the Americans, when they handed out aids to the developing countries. No strings attached. And when they invaded countries and did regime changes, they were done with good motives, all altruistic.
The Chinese, uncouth, loud and rude, and a big bully, should better understand that whatever they do, the Western world will never see them in any good light. Not even from the elite here who are supposedly to know them better because of proximity and some similarity in culture and roots.
The bottom line is that the Singaporean Chinese would even despise the Chinese and would not trust anything they do. So it is only natural that the West will never trust or like the uncouth and uncivilised Chinese. My recommendation is that if they do, they will be damned, if they don’t, they too will be damned. It is best to keep their money at home to help themselves. Let the uncouth peasants eat better and live better. No need to pretend to be nice, to hand out their money to the countries in financial trouble.
With the rich Europeans in their luxurious limousines at the doorsteps of the poor farmers and factory workers asking for a little donation, from their kitties hidden under their wooden beds, should the Chinese shoo them away?
For decades, the western countries, including Europe and the US, have been living in great and bountiful times. They were dining and wining in the best restaurants with the best steaks they could buy, on borrowed money and borrowed time. On the other side of the globe, the Chinese farmers and factory workers were working their guts out just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Anything extra, any leftovers, will be put into the kitty.
The Chinese were not rich, but they did not over spend. They saved every cent possible for the rainy day. The West was a different story. There was no rainy day. The rain will never come, only good times. They forgot that their good times are borrowed times on borrowed money. There will be no more colonies to feed their extravagant life styles.
The day of reckoning is here. Those who were prudent, thrifty and spent within their means would have lesser to worry than those who flaunted their wealth and consumed more than they could afford to. And while their sprawling straw houses are burning, they are wishing that the little mud houses will go down as well.
Of course some knew their houses are burning. They are being burnt and needed help. Some still don’t think so and wishing and willing others will be burnt down so that they can clap and say, I told you so.
Some will put the blame on the Chinese peasants for saving too much and spending too little. The financial crisis is the fault of the Chinese. And when the Americans went to the Chinese with hands stretching, the Chinese obliged to help stabilise the world financial crisis and saved the day for the Americans. The Europeans are following the Americans to Beijing, with hands outstretched. Some corners were slyly suggesting that the Chinese were doing it not for altruistic reasons. Some, like the great thinkers and journalists here will be asking the Chinese of their intent, as if the Chinese were harbouring some unspeakable sinister motive for giving out their money.
No, they would not question the altruism of the Western empires, of the Americans, when they handed out aids to the developing countries. No strings attached. And when they invaded countries and did regime changes, they were done with good motives, all altruistic.
The Chinese, uncouth, loud and rude, and a big bully, should better understand that whatever they do, the Western world will never see them in any good light. Not even from the elite here who are supposedly to know them better because of proximity and some similarity in culture and roots.
The bottom line is that the Singaporean Chinese would even despise the Chinese and would not trust anything they do. So it is only natural that the West will never trust or like the uncouth and uncivilised Chinese. My recommendation is that if they do, they will be damned, if they don’t, they too will be damned. It is best to keep their money at home to help themselves. Let the uncouth peasants eat better and live better. No need to pretend to be nice, to hand out their money to the countries in financial trouble.
With the rich Europeans in their luxurious limousines at the doorsteps of the poor farmers and factory workers asking for a little donation, from their kitties hidden under their wooden beds, should the Chinese shoo them away?
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