The link is not working. Please check the link before you post.Originally posted by Mat Toro:Did they tell you that there is a growing middle class that snapped up all these condos out there?
http://www.business.gov.sg/EN/News/20070702Wageincr.htm
2006 Wage Increase Highest In 6 Years, Says MOM
Average rise was 4.5%; most sectors paid more than 2 monthsÂ’ bonus.
How much increment did you get my frens? Be honest.
you're a businessman right???? didn't you or your collegues whenever generate reports, have to breakdown the overall statisitcs???Originally posted by Mat Toro:huh? overall pay increase 4.5% not significant? how much is significant?
given your careless and offending postings, I think you are not in a position to advise others. Your usage of the word 'humble' insults the word to an extreme.Originally posted by Mat Toro:a piece of advice for you.
keep learning and keep thinking, be humble and open your eyes, you will do very well in Singapore even when you work for others.
You make our govt look really bad. As I mentioned before, the responsibility of the govt is to ensure everyone should not be left behind. This is in the latest PAP propaganda, that its one united Singapore, and no one gets left behind. Therefore, it is THEIR responsibility to see how they can help the poor.Originally posted by Mat Toro:Not govt's fault even if the bottom don't rise. The less educated have to compete directly with China and India.
If you can ensure that the Chinese and Indians and Vietnamese stop competeing against us, the govt can guarantee that the bottom will rise as well.
W/o the GST rise, the bottom will dip even further because there will be less jobs created and less investment.
BTW, how much have you fellas helped the poor?
Don't presume to talk logic, facts and reason when you cannot even answer simple questions. I was prepared to accord you all the respect that I thought you would deserve but sadly, no.Originally posted by Mat Toro:If you followed the discussion, you will notice that I presented reason, facts and logic while these anti govt guys presented extremes and emotions.
I am not too good with my economics.Originally posted by Mat Toro:Not govt's fault even if the bottom don't rise. The less educated have to compete directly with China and India.
If you can ensure that the Chinese and Indians and Vietnamese stop competeing against us, the govt can guarantee that the bottom will rise as well.
W/o the GST rise, the bottom will dip even further because there will be less jobs created and less investment.
BTW, how much have you fellas helped the poor?
Instead of taxing personal income and corporate taxes, the tax burdens falls onto consumption. This encourages investment and entrepreneurship adn will help to generate employment.Originally posted by maurizio13:I am not too good with my economics.
Perhaps you can explain how the GST rise helps create job and investments?
now someone behaves like a self-righteous dimwit who doesn't understand what he says.Originally posted by Mat Toro:Instead of taxing personal income and corporate taxes, the tax burdens falls onto consumption. This encourages investment and entrepreneurship adn will help to generate employment.
Taxing consumption also ensure sthat those who were not paying taxes ended up paying them as well. It is indeed a fairer tax system.
Its that simple.
The reason why people oppose it is because they don't understand it. Some refuse to understand it. And some of those who refuse to understand claim they are complaining because they pity the poor. Well the truth is, these people just don't care about the poor, they just hate being taxed for their consumption. How do we know? They never did anything much for the poor.
First of all, do you understand the fundamental activities of governance?Originally posted by Mat Toro:Instead of taxing personal income and corporate taxes, the tax burdens falls onto consumption. This encourages investment and entrepreneurship adn will help to generate employment.
Taxing consumption also ensure sthat those who were not paying taxes ended up paying them as well. It is indeed a fairer tax system.
Its that simple.
The reason why people oppose it is because they don't understand it. Some refuse to understand it. And some of those who refuse to understand claim they are complaining because they pity the poor. Well the truth is, these people just don't care about the poor, they just hate being taxed for their consumption. How do we know? They never did anything much for the poor.
Originally posted by maurizio13:All western countries are going bankrupt on welfare state welfarism and desperate to get out and you want us to go there?
First of all, do you understand the fundamental activities of governance?
1) production of goods and services
2) regulation and subsidization of private production
3) purchase of goods and services
[b]4) redistribution of income
In most western countries, the rich are taxed more so as to redistribute the income to lower wage earners. Reducing the top marginal tax bracket for the rich so that you can tax low wage earners is regressive. The rich gains from the reduction in income tax, while the poor not paying any income tax at all has to succumb to consumption tax.
Increasing the consumption tax will only reduce the consumption, because the poor and the middle income will have less to spend now. e.g. If you made $100 (without GST) previously, you have the full $100 to consume. With GST of 7%, your $100 wage effectively becomes $93.45, less money means less multiplier effect.
Maybe you would be more convincing if you could explain the mechanics of your theory instead of making one liner unsubstantiated statements.[/b]
Only$10 and you wanna crow? Please!Originally posted by Rock^Star:I paid an old auntie $10 for a pack of tissues the last time I was back in Singapore, it can probably last her 3 meals. That's not important at all.
The key is: if the govt dishes out more aid to the poor, it can benefit them till they die.
There is only so much one can do. No point finding out how much one has helped the poor.
Oh, mat toro the coward is finally responding to my posts. Then why not the 3:32pm and 7:46pm ones on 20 July?Originally posted by Mat Toro:Only$10 and you wanna crow? Please!
Don't you know that the poor do get welfare that feed them till they die?
You are right that govt does help them much more than you ever did mister.
I suggest you fellas stop complaining and start giving more to the poor.
Go join Rotary Club, join the Lions. Spend your time serving the community.
I did not say that the poor do not get welfare.Originally posted by Mat Toro:you don't even know that the poor gets welfare? Now I doubt you did any social work.
I honestly think you ought to let your action speak louder than your posts and commit more to social work on a regular basis.
Originally posted by Mat Toro:Yes, those who are old and cannot work do get welfare till they die.
You mean there is a restriction?
Which means to say you don't have the link? And make up your mind. First, you say "the poor receive welfare till they die". Now, you say that the "old and cannot work get welfare till they die". Which one do you want? Hell of difference yes.
If you are referring to old folks home.... Yes, the elderly in there receive aid till they pass away.
However, do not talk as if receiving aid is such an easy process. Refer to this article:
May 7, 2007
Help for the poor: So close, yet so far
By Vivi Zainol, For The Straits Times
WHY do needy Singaporeans continue to fall through the cracks despite the Government's array of public aid schemes?
To tackle this question, 18 of my students at Ngee Ann Polytechnic interviewed more than 30 low-income households for a vacation module. They found the biggest bar-riers to be education and language.
Many are illiterate. With little knowledge or understanding of schemes to help them, it's not surprising that some say they know the Government is helping them, but they feel it is not doing enough.
Some would rather get an extra job than ask for help. Others struggle to make themselves understood and say they do not have the time, money or energy to make return trips to their MP or Community Development Councils (CDCs) to ask for more help.
For those who did bother, a common complaint heard by students was that the CDC officers are rude.
Several years ago, as a Straits Times community reporter, I had heard the same comment when I asked a woman with three children, and whose husband was in jail for a drug offence, why she did not ask for help. Describing how her experience with CDCs turned her off, she said a CDC officer had sarcastically asked her: 'Didn't your husband leave you any money?'
'If he had, why would I be asking for help?' said the troubled woman, who had contemplated suicide.
One group of Ngee Ann students decided to observe CDC officers in action after receiving the feedback. At one CDC, officers were unfailingly polite (Only one CDC? what about other CDCs? Perhaps they were not as rude because of the presence of students?) - it was the low-income group which was being demanding and uncooperative. However, all the CDC officers were Chinese - help- seekers speaking Malay and Indian had to struggle to make themselves understood.
At another CDC, student Nurlina Fatima Shafrin, 18, recalled how a CDC officer was heard commenting loudly to another officer nearby on how 'irritating' the people who had come to ask for help were, even when the latter, who were filling up forms, could hear them.
What is interesting to note is that interviews by students uncovered a perception among low-income earners that the higher-educated tend to look down on them and are arrogant. Formally attired CDC officers also unintentionally give the impression that they are less approachable.
Not all CDC officers are trained social workers - there are not enough social workers to go around in Singapore.
Also, some members of the low-income group can be downright prickly, believing they have a right to receive handouts from the state.
But surely everybody deserves good customer service regardless of income group? The poor have their pride too.
Could CDCs perhaps train their staff to understand the sensitivities and psyche of the lower-income group? Steps could also be taken to ensure that staff on duty speak different languages and dialects. Members from the low-income group could even be employed to help.
It's good news indeed to hear that the Government has raised public assistance spending from $96 million to $140 million, and ComCare funding from $43 million to $67 million. (What is the duration for that allocated amount spent? What is the percentage of the assistance that goes to actual assistance? How much of it is dispatched to those who need it, and in time? How much of the public assistance would be offset by the increase in GST?)With that much money allocated to the needy (It appears to be a lot of money but is it enough?)it makes sense to ensure these funds reach the ones who need immediate assistance.
Take Mr Ramasamy Ratran, a 52-year-old Indian man, who was a pitiful sight when my students and I chanced upon him. He was lying on the dusty floor in his rented two-room flat, having been discharged from hospital just two weeks earlier.
Fortunately, a former female neighbour and a male friend had taken it upon themselves to look after Mr Ramasamy, who is epileptic and living on his own. Medical social workers had settled his hospital bills, but he was getting no financial help while he was recuperating and unable to work.
'Can you please help him? He needs help. When I first came two weeks ago, there was no electricity. His flat was in total darkness,' pleaded the former neighbour, who had helped to top up his prepaid utilities smart key to get the electricity back on.
Mr Ramasamy was not the only one my students and I found in need of assistance. When barber Yahya Pinghani, 39, was hospitalised for a kidney problem, he could not work and had no daily income for weeks. His children skipped school that week because there was no money for the bus fare.
Mr Pinghani's wife Murni, 41, complained how, after three weeks, her single friend who had applied for help with her at a CDC had already received assistance while she and her family were still waiting. She revealed that her family owed a whopping $4,000 in utilities bills.
CDCs do give $200 once-off emergency assistance, after which the needy wait six to eight weeks for CDCs to respond. (Six to Eight weeks? Is that how efficient our civil service is?)So what do they do when help is a long time coming? Many see their MPs, getting a $50 cheque for their trouble, or resort to collecting food from voluntary welfare organisations. How many know that they can get immediate assistance from your Citizens Consultative Committee? I did not either, for that matter, till I asked around. (The question in my mind is, how can the CCC help? How immediate can they help and how much. Unfortunately, the writer does not probe enough.)
Perhaps it is time that bulletin boards in HDB flats were put to better use. They could advertise where the poor can get help and give details of the schemes. Many low-income earners are illiterate, but the ones who are not will surely help to spread the word around.
It could also be made mandatory for medical social workers in hospitals to inform social workers or CDCs when a person who is from the low-income group is discharged so they will give him temporary financial assistance during his recovery period.
Last year, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) set up a community care network for the elderly in Ang Mo Kio. Under this scheme, grassroots leaders are trained by family service centres to identify needy households.(Let's hope the grassroots leaders are not as rude as the CDC officers.)
Perhaps if this outreach scheme is formally extended to include all needy Singaporeans, not just the elderly, it could be used to ensure no one falls through the cracks and to explain the help schemes available to the needy.
MCYS minister Vivian Balakrishnan recently called on Singaporeans to be eyes and ears on the ground, saying 'we need the whole of society' and not 'an army of bureaucratic civil servants', when he outlined $140 million worth of initiatives for the low-income group.
The findings of the 18 Ngee Ann polytechnic students who ventured out of their classroom may not be conclusive, but simple observations like theirs should not be belittled. Like any jigsaw puzzle enthusiast will tell you, even one small piece makes a difference.
The writer is a lecturer at the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
I wish I could do more for the poor in Singapore but I cannot (in the physical sense) as I'm overseas now. Do not presume to know what I do or do not do for the poor in Singapore. Like I have told you before: there is only so much one can do as compared to the govt. It is pointless harping on what an individual has done.Originally posted by Mat Toro:If you care so much for the poor, why don't you do more for them rather than complain about a tax policy that will help the economy?
Now, I am going treat you like a bloody scatterbrain if you insist on behaving like one.Originally posted by Mat Toro:If you care so much for the poor, why don't you do more for them rather than complain about a tax policy that will help the economy?
Well, then with your limited knowledge, you have misunderstood the term redistribution of income. Redistribution of income means taking the higher income of citizens and redistributing it to the poor of society. The redistribution may be in the form of medical benefits (resulting in the poor paying less or not paying any medical fees), provision of public housing for the poor through subsidies, giving out food coupons for the poor, provision of free education, etc. Else the poor who do not make enough might not receive a basic form of sustenance (medical, education, etc).Originally posted by Mat Toro:All western countries are going bankrupt on welfare state welfarism and desperate to get out and you want us to go there?
You need to study econs more please.