No amount of sweet talk or lessons can makeup the difference. It is not that the people does not know the difficulty of governing nor does not wish the country to succeed and prosper. They are worried and suffer in silent. It is a race where a lot of people are being left behind, they will feel the race is unfair.

Let’s hope those PAP MP or ex MP, who does not agree with the way PAP is now operating could come out of PAP and rise up for your people once again. They could form a new party or join opposition party to take on the PAP for goodness sake.

Singapore needs alternate government, ready to step into the governing shoe. Now the wind of change is likely to fill the air, those who could make it may just miss it and next time it won’t be so easy anymore.

The middle income is affected, but if we think of the relatively small % of consumption of our spending (we are afterall a savings country) and offsetted by the GST credits, the effects are considerably less.

The main people it affects are the rich and tourist.
Rich because we are doing a sleight of hand- we reduce income tax to make us look attractive but we tax them when they wine and dine in sg.

But most of all, it is the tourist that pay more. As Singapore moves towards a more service orientated economy, gearing up for teh tourism sector, we need to raise revenue from here too. In teh past, they don’t pay any taxes. But now , with GST they have to contribute taxes too.

The retirement age of SAF officers has been extended to 50 and after they retired, they will get at least $500k for retirement,. For those under Military Domain Expert Scheme, the retirement age is 60. Hence, it is not justifiable to say that becos the SAF has a short career span, they should be paid more, since now their career span is now similar to civilians. However, their pay is still much more than the civilian sectors! The more they are paid, the more the civilians has to fork out the taxes to pay them in the form of higher GST!

If you said that many of the SAF regulars struggled after they retired, you ought to know that many Singaporeans are already struggling even before they retired! At least the SAF regulars still has their hundreds of thousands of dollars in their bank account even though they said they struggled!

The defence of Singapore will not be weaken even if the pay of SAF regulars are cut, becos the NSmen and NSF’s commitment to defence of Singapore will be strengthen, becos with a lower cost of living with a reduction of GST or channelling of public funds to healthcare and education, Singaporeans will feel the worth of defending a country they can be proud to call theirs! Now, the foreigners had already captured the jobs and HDB flats of Singaporeans and the SAF cannot defend the state. The threat to natioal security is not in the military dimension. The threat to national security is now in the economic, in the form of high GST, lost of jobs and HDB flats to foreigners! Also, the threat of terrorism and H1N1 has also posed internal and public health threat to Singaporeans! That’s why the Reform Party is right that defence spending should be cut, so as to reduce taxes, and spend more on healthcare and education and restrict foreign workers!

Poor getting help? Have you ever meet the self – claimed poor Singaporean who are always asking for help? Some are real lazy… Some are still searching for their brain (quit their job because they just simply dislike the boss, and yet has a family to feed), and expecting the Govt to feed them… The entire Nation will only improve if everyone strive to improve themsleves… Go study the subject called economics. It says the wealth of a country = productive of the people (not Govt giving money). Only when every Singaporean strive to improve themselves then they will get their quality in life.

Also have you got any knowledge that in some european countries / Australia etc; has much much higher tax that where you are living in? Are you only looking at their social welfare and benefits? At lease in Singapore you work hard, you get back from your blood and sweat… In those countries (in which many of you are trying to ask for – having great social welfare / benefit – i.e. Jobless you get allowance, wonderful elderly care etc.), they can possibly tax you up to 50%… Wake up! Can you get motivated people in the workforce if half their salary goes to the bums who sits at home and remain jobless and waiting for the Government to feed… Sit back and have a deep thought about this. Merry Christmas!!!

Foreigners, over to you.

oh! that’s where these wonderful numbers come from.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

http://img.moronail.net/img/8/5/1085.jpg

1998 $35,115
1999 $35,371
2000 $39,683
2001 $37,088
2002 $37,874
2003 $39,463
2004 $44,487
2005 $47,192
2006 $50,244
2007 $54,834
2008 $53,192

So, where does the wealth created go? Food for thought!!

In 2005 there were 4,013 households with 4 or 5 persons (or 18,000 persons using the average of 4.5) living in 1 and 2 room HDB flats. There were 708 households with 6 or more persons (or 4,248 using just the minimum of 6) living in 1 and 2 room HDB flats. All this in a country with a per capita GDP of $53,192.

And, as Sze Hian points out, over 220,000 households (or nearly 800,000 persons, or nearly a quarter of the resident population, using the average household size of 3.5) are in HOUSEHOLDS which earn less than $2,000 a month. One can almost be certain that the proportion of citizen households earning less than $2,000 a month would be higher than that of the permanent resident household.

Use brans lor.[/i]

so you never shopped @ all
without a doubt you are a 101% splintster..
too ugy to get married or is your lips too WIDE?
you here says singapoor got no minerals sands or salts
yet the ministers paid themselves more than 5 digits/month…
you didn’t openned your big fat lips and shout why must you ministers have so high salaries?
than again a bimbo liked you sureLEE have no brain @ all

////”Govt should focus on the economy and focus on how to make everyone contribute more, so increasing the GST from 5% to 7% is not at all bad.”///

- Is that all a Govt needs to do? Just open the land (or legs) for investors (or pimps) to come and grow the economy, and just make you & I contribute more. You conveniently omitted to mention contribute to who or for what? Don’t you understand this article is about the shortcoming in distributing the revenue? Yes, increase the wealth of the nation but for who to enjoy? Who?

///”A good govt should try to make the pool of poor smaller and not trying to help the poor directly by making them pay less for everything.”///

- Your simple mind must have told you that poverty equates laziness. Can poverty not be due to old age without employment and no pension, disability and not able to work, illness and not able to work, young infant children who needs 24/7 care, etc? With zero income and dependents to care for, even making them pay less for everything is too much!

- Be careful what you wish for as it might be your family who need handout next unless you are one of the Mini-stars. No one can guarantee you will never fall ill or become disabled or have intellectually disadvantaged children unless you are God.

///”Those with an opposition mentality always want the poor to pay less and if the pool of poor is getting bigger they get more votes, the poor will be pushed to a corner by the opposition eventually if they get to rule.”

- I want the poor to be genuinely helped. Does it mean I have an oppo mentality? The poor are already ‘pushed to a corner’, worse they are condemned by the PAP. For the poor to vote the opposition, it is a no brainer – they are not risking anything my dear.

talking about cost of thingies ….

let me put things in perspective:

Cost of Brand NEW only, Made-in-Germany
Porsche Boxster, bought in UK, costs this much : 74,586 SGD
(as of today’s exchange rate)
(reference : http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/porsche/porsche-boxster-guide.asp)

vis-a-vis

Honda City, bought in singapore, costs this much : 73,500 SGD

(reference: sgcarmart http://www.sgcarmart.com/new_cars/newcars_listing.php?MOD=&PR1=70&PR2=80&VT=Any&DT=Any&imageField.x=32&imageField.y=12)

Is it not great? Honda city is cheaper!

But compare :

Honda City : built in thailand, 1.5 litres, horsepower ?? heeee
Porsche : built in Germany, 2.9litres, horsepower 255 bhp (super car !)

And if for some unfortunate reason some of these owners were to lose their jobs as well, how can they downgrade to a smaller unit with an outstanding loan that hasn’t been paid off?

Does HDB have any contigency plan for such a scenario? Or will they be laughing all the way to the bank instead and say that these people went in with their ‘eyes’ open?

I saw that episode too, and when the mother said that when she went to hdb toa payoh for assistant, the staff there were rude, and keep telling her to get a job… They don’t understand that she needs to take care of her 2 intellectually disadvantaged children..

So much for 1 million smiles and compassion..

Well, one thing I am sure is that now that mediacorp has screened it, the grassroots will be queuing up to help the family..

Malaysia air force shot down one of their own planes without goig to war. Apparently the multi-million dollars fighter jet engine was quietly packed and shipped out to S America. Submarines get stolen. Now planes. Protectors of the nation.