The system is called autocracy, leadership or talent or hypocrisy about one's own ability.
In such a system, autocrat must thrive on power and power is the sustenance or food that feed such pride and megalomaniac self-centredness.
It has been demonstrated again and again that leader in such an autocracy must conquer and win a prize of some kind..like having built a great wall or some seven wonders.
To achieve such an autocratic success, leader must rise tall above all peers and above all reasons and be differentiated so as to lead and provide directions with that extra vision for the great wall, foresight and abilities ..even against reasons and ..by whatever means.
So the autocracy must target to build the world's biggest and most powerful surpluses with grandiose projects and wonders like Qin Szu Huang had done.
In order to build that great reserve people will have to expect larger and larger painful GST dosages and tax-and-recover corporatization for the leaders to accumulate on taxes paid instead going to the extra mile to provide better services.
The obsession in building surpluses is megalomaniac. From such surpluses the autocrats could control all the elites and give them higher salaries and bonuses to keep them loyal. The final goal is to build grandiose outward success to the world, never mind losses in shin corp or optus.
To maintain law and order and avoid chaos or revolution, they will help the dying few about the lower income group. But the not-so-dying and not-dying will be left to survive on their own struggle in the name of avoiding slipping into the slippery slope of welfare.
This will also be made in the form of just a promise. They will do it in any way they like just as long as there is no disorder or chaos to maintain political control over the masses and rise tall to show empathy.
At the end, NKF will be NKF. Durai may be punished for wrongful part but his policy reflects the same policies of the type of leadership, autocracy and hypocrisy being imposed to showcase external success...irrespective of actual internal success.
GST extra taxes and increased fees will be accumulate at the expense of the patient or people treatment subsidy which finally in this type of leadership will have to be collected by self-help and people's own donation.
So in this type of leadership the intellectuals end up believing and supporting all the look-good justifications like meritocracy is good or economic model is correct due to lack of natural resource and so many hypocrisy used not truly knowing the true reasons ailing the society - the need to achieve autocratic leadership and showcase such leadership with outward success by whatever means never mind the suffering of the ordinary people.