The following is an excerpt of an article published on February 28, 2011 at TODAY online.
by Siew Kum Hong
As I thought about last week’s Budget statement, a quote by Albert Einstein kept playing in my head. The pre-eminent genius of the 20th Century once said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
I am of course not suggesting in any way that the Government is mad, but what struck me most about the Budget – which Parliament will debate today – was that it was pretty much more of the same, albeit “upsized” for the anticipated elections: More ad hoc special transfer payments to help the low-income, more tax incentives to increase productivity, more funding for training and research and development, so on and so forth.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that Singapore’s approach to helping the low-income must “remain centred on opportunities, not entitlements”.
Many Singaporeans would agree with this, and they would disagree with the need to change a winning formula when the past policies have worked.
But I would hazard that most of those stuck at the wrong end of the widening income gap would disagree about the past policies having worked. Based on Department of Statistics figures, the Gini coefficient increased from 0.442 in 2000 to 0.472 last year, or from 0.430 to 0.452 if government special transfers are taken into account. So it is understandable for the low-income to question if more of the same would really address the issue.
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1st of all..try to retain all the over 40s engineered trained senoirs..they may not hav the iso certs..butt they hav the onhands xperiences where money cannot buy nor touched..don’t relied on the foreign talents cinaman or bangalas..
this are youn strong bull..butt with the brain of a lamb…
forget bout our graduated scholars…
just a square hat and a piece of paper..
Ideas could be plucked from the air literally, it is just a matter of who benefits out of the policies implementation.
Human weakness is greed, the more they have the more they want.
One way is to implement upper and lower limits so that the income gap will not be widen beyond the acceptable guidelines.
Let say the highest paid cannot be more than 100 times of the lowest paid.
Something like in percentage terms, no human being is 100 times better than the lowest human being.
The law should also be amended in such a way that no one is allowed to accumulate personal wealth more than they could ever need in their entire lifetime.
If they have excess monies it will be channeled to those in the lowest category.
That will stop the income or wealth gap from widening, it is also call STOP GAP measures.
If north African countries has this in place then there will not be riot and loss of human lives as it is happening now.
Just my two cents worth.
LOL
Dear Siew Kum Hong & TOC,
I have said it many times before. What Singapore needs is a race-blind, affirmative action for the lower-income group.
Lets face it – the rich have access to many things which puts them ahead in the economic competition. From expensive one-on-one tuition and enrichment programs to first-class Ivy League university opportunities etc etc and so on.
But the poor cannot afford all of this.
Meritocracy without a level playing field – is NOT workable and ends up being a plutocracy ! Couple it with eugenics – and you have a recipe for complete disaster !
Best Regards
Dr Syed Alwi
Agreed with Dr Syed Alwi, the affirmative action as to be blind to race, ethnicity, religion, language, gender, etc.
What is currently in existence is not meritocracy — how can it be when someone with a track record of losing billions return to head the major investment arm for Singapore?
The PAP government would expect an uprising from those who are marginalised by PAP policies all these past years.
i think the government is more interested in helping the poor rather than reducing income gap. it is possible that they have effectively helped the poor in the past, but inequality still persist and worsen.
there are two ways to reduce income gap- one, to help the poor earn more by upgrading their skills and trainning. two, to reduce opportunity for the rich to get richer. which one do you think government would focus on if they wanna remain as the ruling government? and which one do you think is easier to work on? and it’s really difficult to judge whether governmental policies have been effective or not. using gini coefficient only tells you inequality has worsen, but not necessary whether governmental policies have worked. perhaps without governmental intervention, gini coefficient will worsen even more.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
I think this only applies to hard sciences. social circumstances change
ya,like asking hard-pressed citizen-workers living in this HIGHER AND HIGHER COST ‘city’ by ‘STRIVING’ to be ‘CHEAPER FASTER BETTER’?
COULD SOMEONE WISE TEACH ME HOW?
I want to know how too… LOL
Gahmet dun just sit there with ur fat pockets. We singaporeans are freaking suffering!
Ahmao
you forgot the 3rd way. That is to let local compete on even footing with foreign workers. What I mean is that the cost of living from which those FWs come from have to be taken into consideration as well.
For example, a basket of goods is created. Very basic stuff, that most countries will have. An index is created and when FW come here, their starting pay will be based on that.
e.g Singapore worker pay = $1000
Singapore index is set at 1.0
Minimum need for living is $400? (whatever the value of the public assistance)
Thus, FW pay (all things being equal) and coming from a country whose index is 0.5, will be: (($1000-$400)/2)+$400 = $700
All shops must have at least 1 Singaporean worker, so that the base (the $1000) can be established.
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4674835
what are malaysian so called talents doing about it, PACK UP and leave, if, repeat, IF, talent.
yes, all of it is possible, because we HAVE IMPORTED millions of SLAVES and CHEAPOS from, you know where.
but then, is ALL COST going DOWN, hell no, ALL COST is going UP, SKY high too.
you name it, its UP UP and AWAY, why, because our miw cost millions EACH ???
is it because your wages gone MILLIONS too ???
well, locals are REAL DAFT !!!!
they live in FEAR and KIASUism……
serve the serfs, money for NOTHING….
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41831886
LOOK WHAT THE MONKEYS ARE TELLING THE PEOPLE….
ARE WE IN ANY DIFFERENT STATE ????
brainwashed and soiled….
@Ahmao: Well said. Looking at the gini coefficient and constantly banging on about it is not a clever way of looking at the system.
If the lowest income group is able to afford a good standard of living, while the highest is astronomical, what does it matter? This is a capitalist society. It’s more important that the government work on assisting those at the bottom and raising their income and standard of living. That should be the focus. Have they done enough? No. Can they do more? Yes. But there’s no need to cite the gini coefficient.
Ahmao, 28 February 2011
on “i think…”, opinions are disputable, facts aren’t.
on “it is possible…”, there are endless possibilities. things either are, or are not.
on “which one do you think is easier to work on?”, ooh, such revelation… that our govt only take the easy route to problems. :D
on “it’s really difficult to judge whether governmental policies have been effective or not.”, that’s just dumb. just listen to the ground & you’ll get the feedback needed to judge!
maybe its just that top civil servants play dumb (deaf)?…
If one wants to stem the income divide, it is best to curb the problem by WALKING THE TALK, instead of worsening it.this can first be done be not overpaying the civil Servants, sorry civil service CANNOT be benchmarked against CEOs in the corporate world. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!.What the people want is NOT merchanaries with “capabilties”, what people want is someone who serves the people selflessly not for mercanary rewards rather than love for Singapore.
Perhaps the next government can consider this coming into the next TOUGH year due to geopolitical events which will inevitably affect us.
CUT THE PAY OF ALL THE CIVIL SERVANTS ACROSS THE BOARD AND DO SO IN A MEASUREABLE DEGREE. ( MAYBE 30%?- SLOWLY) , when we see those capable willing to serve with a paycut, I will gladly vote for them and pay increased taxes. Lets HONESTLY build this nation together.
we do not need a wider income gap
or
“elite”s who do not understand what is happening on the ground
let not have more MPs and Minister with no ideas on how to relate to the ground