Almost every country in the world with state welfare, pension schemes, minimum wages ended up worse off. Every policy and program needs to be paid for. For the majority of the people who do not understand much about economics, little did they know that the debts will be simply be incurred and kick down the road.
The opposition could not demonstrate any understanding of budgeting and fixing the root of the very problem that they are burning PAP with. Inflation.
The root of many of the issues is inflation. Can a government "control" inflation and reduce prices? Did the opposition ever mention the cause of inflation and how to handle it?
When I heard of plans such as drawing from our reserves, magically conjuring money out of the air, without thoughts on how to replenish the money spent or even getting value out of it, I knew the opposition policies will doom us as a nation.
I seriously doubt the opposition are actually evaluating the cost of implementation and the returns of the policies that they had borrowed from the rest of the world. The ideas are not original, nor are the problems associated with them.
Using SDP's "solutions" as an example,
The SDP’s solutionsTo overcome this problem and help Singaporeans meet daily expenses, the SDP proposes the following measures:
1. Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by:
- reducing the GST from 7% to 3% and abolishing the GST for essential items such as rice, oil, medicines, etc,
- lowering your PUB bills by at least 50%,
- making sure that our public hospitals reduce charges and stop making a profit from Singaporeans,
- bringing down bus and MRT fares by at least 20%, and
- ensuring that the government increases public expenditure for the poor.
2. Increase the wages of workers and employees through schemes like Minimum Wage.
This will put more money into the pockets of Singaporeans. Higher incomes mean greater spending power for Singaporeans. This will benefit businesses and help the economy to become stronger.
3. Implement the Singaporeans First Policy.
We want to rely more on Singaporeans and less on cheap foreign labour. The high number of foreign workers presently in Singapore will only lower wages further because if there are more workers in the country, then employers can pick and choose the ones who will work longer and longer for less and less.
We must stop the PAP from raising our population to 6.5 million because this island cannot cope with so many people.
So help us to help you keep the cost of living to an affordable level. Support the Singapore Democrats for a more secure and brighter future.
- Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by: reducing the GST from 7% to 3% and abolishing the GST for essential items such as rice, oil, medicines, etc,
The money spent in the programs and the tax not collected requires another source. The countries which implemented such policies ended up increasing other taxes and personal income taxes. Eventually the expenses kept ballooning out of control. - Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by: lowering your PUB bills by at least 50%,
Populist policies like subsidising energy costs such as fuel, water and power had already caused big issues with budgeting in neighbouring countries. They had quickly learn that even if they do process the natural resources, subsidising the cost only promote wastage and increase the squeeze on supply. - Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by: making sure that our public hospitals reduce charges and stop making a profit from Singaporeans,
Public hospitals need to be subsidised to reduce charges. The taxpayers will have to foot the bill. If you squeeze margins, without subsidising the cost, the good doctors, nurses and equipment will move to the private hospitals, who have no obligations to make it any cheaper when they knew public hospitals are slums. - Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by:bringing down bus and MRT fares by at least 20%, and
Same logic as point 2. As what I had written in a previous blog post, the operators will not want to see reduction in profit from previous levels. They will cut manpower, employ more foreigners, reduce frequency and kill off unprofitable routes. - Lower prices of our daily use of various items and services by:ensuring that the government increases public expenditure for the poor.
Too generic to comment on.
Their policies were also native and laughable. I will rather call their boomerang policies because I I see that they will just come around and hit our ass.
1. Re-calibrate our tax structure.
Singapore should bring up its tax bracket for top earners closer to the 30 percent mark like Canada, Germany, and Japan. The increased revenue collected from higher tax rates could go towards funding social programmes such as increasing the Public Assistance Scheme for the poor.
In addition, we should lower and vary the GST rate for different goods. Purchase of basic food items as well as other basic necessities should not be taxed while the GST for luxury items should be increased.
In 2008, the PAP Government abruptly abolished taxes on estate duty. Inheritances are taxed when individuals die and pass on their possessions. The Singapore Democrats propose the reinstatement of the estate duty tax for the wealthiest 20 percent in Singapore, both for citizens and non-citizens. Revenue from such a tax can be used to pay for programmes like retrenchment benefits described below.
Unfortunately, the wealthy are also the smartest people around when it comes to tax evasion. Putting such laws in place only drive them to get creative. For a good example, look at again my favorite punching bag, the United States. Many of the wealthy simply migrate to another country with more favorable laws. Personal gains can be creatively managed by using the cover of off-shore companies etc.
What happened in US is that instead of gaining any tax from the wealthy, US actually LOST taxes in the long run. The tax burden ends up where? The not-so-smart public who do not have the means or ability to dodge the bullet.
Such laws only served to make things look pretty to the majority to us but instead the wealthy will just take it as a we-are-not-welcome-here law.2. Introduce Minimum Wage.
Paying indecently low wages in high-cost Singapore not only dehumanises our workers, it also creates insecurity among the workforce which threatens productivity.
Minimum wage is the lowest amount of wages an employer may legally pay to an employee. Based on a wage level of $300 per week, the official minumum wage for Singapore would work out to $6.80 per hour. This amount would be applicable to the lowest of the low-wage income earners.
Some fear a minimum wage policy because such legislation would drive wage costs up, cutting into profit margins. But increasing the wage levels of workers increases the spending power of workers which will stimulate consumption, benefiting businesses.
Minimum wage also increases the productivity of the workers as they can focus on their jobs instead of being distracted with having to find supplementary income because of low and inadequate wages. It also reduces poverty and want which can breed mistrust and resentment towards management thereby lowering quality output of work.
Most of all minimum wage prevents workers from being exploited and allows prosperity to be shared by all.
Today over 90 percent of countries across the world have minimum wage in one form or another. The few countries that have no laws or regulations on minimum wage are Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Tonga, Brunei, Somalia, and, of course, Singapore.
Most economists today agree that the negative effects of such a policy to employers as well as employees are relatively minor. Even Hong Kong has just passed a minimum wage bill.
The flip side of such policies is that the minimum wages will become effectively the maximum wages. Jobs will be lost to foreigners who will take up the jobs for minimum wages which locals will shun. Prices of goods and services will soar as businesses pass the cost to the customer. Price inflation kicks in and ends up hurting the very people the law is suppose to help.
Worse yet, the number of illegals and over stayers will also climb to fill in the positions which the minimum wages is too high to be paid for. Why pay $6.80 for a cleaner when you can pay $3?
How about reducing the number of workers and demand free overtime? Someone else will take the job if compliance is not met.
I can go on and on but in the end, please open your eyes and read deeper. Populist policies are easy to sell, but impossible to implement and run. If complaining, finger pointing and populist policies are all the opposition parties are about, I should start my own too !!!
Announcing the ...
AXIS OF EVIL AND FINANCIAL DOOMSDAY PARTY !!!
Featuring ...
- Completely abolishing national service
Why waste our precious youth? The SAF will be manned by cheap labour from across the world who will gladly die as cannon folder. - Doing away with GST AND income tax (Also name any tax you hate)
The smart way is to sell more government bonds to MAS. The tactic is simple. Government needs money? Issue bonds which will be purchased by MAS who in turn uses the bonds as an asset to generate more credit to buy more government bonds. - Cheaper public healthcare
We will recruit cheaper doctors and nurses who may or may not understand or speak English to serve you. Biopolis will now produce drugs at cost price with complete disregard to international patents for the public! We will also legalised the purchase of organs from foreign countries to make sure that our citizens stay alive longer. - Free public transportation for all
All transport companies will be nationalised except for taxi companies. As a sweetener, ERP and COV will be removed since public transportation should be more attractive as it will now be free. - CPF will be abolished
We trust our citizens to be able to manage your own savings and will not need the government to babysit you and risk insufficient returns on your compulsory savings known as CPF. - No need for minimum wages or pension scheme
As long as you are a citizen, you get a monthly amount credited into your bank account. You only need to prove that you are alive and kicking. - Cheaper public housing
Why wait for BPO? Or pay for sky high COV? The forested area will be cleared to build more flats and it will be faster than buying sand to reclaim land. - Even cheaper and better education
We will employ more foreign talents to incubate our own young talents. This way we can use the same budget and still reduce the teachers to student ratio per class. And better yet, we will revert to 2 school sessions a day to DOUBLE the efficiency of the teachers.
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