Great to see you, and glad to hear that you are sticking to your side…and hope you have manage to unlock some part of the logical mindset, since originally you don’t need consumption to produce, even when there is no export.

“And I believe it often takes a govt more resolve and courage to stick to the supply side” I am so happy to hear that Dear SY….but you seem to have forgotten something that is very logical…courage and resolve doesn’t mean that it is smart and right…if their courage and resolve leads to no productive result, what is the use? what people want over here is result. Period. we can talk about guts, resolve, determination etc etc, however, if you fail to produce the result, you still fail….

you never win the silver dear SY, you lost the gold. Charles Darwin says that “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” and likewise, it is the truth…no matter how smart, how strong, how much resolve…if you don’t change, you will be extinct sooner or later.

“the current govt has done well and deserves some credit.” Sorry, credit from the people will only be given after the result has been produced. This is not some banks whereby management produce paper growth and can claim credit and get incredible bonuses…look where that leads to…

Hope to see you again my dear SY, and btw, do take a look at post 76 and that link (*o*)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8031456.stm

When have the government listen to the people? We are quite sick and tired of their multi million dollars comments. The day will come when they ask why are we not in office anymore?

IMHO, again another hare brained scheme to help companies but not individuals. What is the use of training when there are NO jobs and No income and big bills to pay?

Macham like actually they cannot forecast, but can only give a figure on hindsight?? When all the dust has settled, they said – 2007 – budget surplus of gazillions after GST raised from 5% to 7% hahaha!

Why no comments on this one?

“Mas Selamat is either in Singapore, or he is not”

Wow – we need a million dollar paying DPM to spout such thoughtful insights.

We have been reminded constantly to be prepared for ‘bad’ time(my word) and since the people have been repeatedly ‘warned’ or ‘pre-informed’ they ‘should not blame’(my words) the Leaders when their repeated forecasts/warnings, strike.

However, to say that they(leaders) did not provide solution(s) may not be very accurate. The People were told that we maybe lucky, at least there was mention of a solution, if it qualifies as a solution at all. But at least it had been suggested as one possible solution.

Jack Neo had been too respectful, otherwise i would have expected him to probably suggest that all parliamentarians and superscale civil servants’ remuneration be reduced by 30%. 30% of their pays could be many million SIN Dollars per month which if put into social welfares, would benefit tens , if not hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans.

As a lowly educated layman, i need others to help enlighten me on why are our essential goods and services and the commercial sectors keep raising the costs of their wares and services. SERIOUSLY, IS THERE SUCH NEEDS TO CONSTANTLY RAISE THEIR PRICES ? IS IT JUSTIFIABLE ? i sincerely hope there would be some responses to my query.

patriot

to put all the blame on the government, thinking that it is the government who is responsible for their miseries.

Readers here are too pent up that they have lost their mind on what they really want

So people really have to ask themselves what they really want[/i]

the resignations of the WHOLE pap party for a start?
what do we the peasants got to lose
ANYWAY?

You have to realise how little domestic consumption can boost GDP in a small population. Around the world, small nations without natural resources heavily depends on exports to grow. So to become less susceptible to cycles in global demand by reducing exports is to reduce growth during good times too.

be funny? can you show me prove that Singaporeans has been reliant on the gahman? or has the gahmen been reliant on Singaporeans input for their lucky investment? Singaporeans contribute not through income tax, but through our CPF portforlio and even GST whereby everyone, is paying for it.

Personal income taxes and GST takes up less than 20% of the govt revenue. It is in the revenue report on MOF’s website. This issue aside, why do some people complain that the govt is not doing enough when they are not dependent on the govt?

do you really think he doesn’t know that expectations rises with pay? and also about the problems that have spun out of control?

the bottomline to consider is whether you believe that his team is trying their best and it’s difficult to do better.

(to a certain extend, i believe it is true: people in the civil service are either deadwood or high-flyers wannabe, and its the high-flyers who are expecting pay rises and promotion, and are most likely to leave. and if you believe this is the same everywhere, then you have to seriously consider the possibility that talent is scarce in such small population)

and if you considering to shift the responsibility to the free market, do you think people are ready to also accept ill-effects the free market brings?

it’s best that the government become more transparent. it’s for the good for themselves and the people.

so all those PMETs be thankful if your re-employed, lower pay nevermind, got some money very good liao. next time can earn more, but i cannot guarantee lah (up to bosses de mah).

And yes, this cycle will repeat itself, over and over again…so what even after we have recovered? environmental disturbances occur again, and the fall will restart.if we don’t try to shift it to a more stable model at the expense of high growth, we are just inviting ourselves to go through the scenario again. prevention is better then curing, and that’s what people like Mr Kenneth, Mr Tan has been trying to advocate…a shift to another model, with lesser dependence *take note, not no dependence* on export. although it will be hard for such a small country to move away from its dependence on such a convenient model

However, saying all this is easy. but action speaks louder then words and i just wish there is something we can all do.

Just read an article (The Sunday Times, 3rd May 2009, Page 33) by Lee Wei Ling, there is one paragraph that highlights his priorities in life. It is as follows:

She told me he was an albino. Hsien Loong was a little disappointed and had told our father the boy would not be able to do national service. I also knew that albinos have poor eyesight. My heart went to Ming Yang and Loong.

I thought that giving care and love for the kid (at that stage in life) is more important and it should the first thing on their minds. But no, they (father and grandfather) were worried about the albino’s national service eligibility.

And these are our leaders.