PM's Speech - Help Yourself, Shop Wisely
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In this year national day speech, our PM says that after a few good years, things are looking bad again. He says that we can weather it.. we can "help ourselves by shopping wisely, going for household brands instead of buying brand names and think before you spend..."
Eh.. does he not have a degree in Economics or Mathematics? Was he not the Finance Minister? How is telling the public not to spend money going to help the economy??
His economic theories continues to baffle me...
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what would you have him to say?
times are bad, please spend more! ?
you need to differentiate between "Shop Wisely" as in your title, and "Not Spending Money" as in your post.
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Spending wisely does not mean you dun spend or minimium your spending, you do spend too, but spend on those needed to spend. And in economics, saving is also a gain on the hindsight, you save in banks, banks got money to lend and businessmen borrow to invest, create jobs, you get your salary, you spend and save and back to the cycle.
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shouldn't there be like measures taken to stimulate the economy than simply placing the burden on the people
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You want him to say mee siam mai hum again?
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Originally posted by advanceparty:
shouldn't there be like measures taken to stimulate the economy than simply placing the burden on the people
Increase birthrate lor, especially the chinese one, very low -
Just as I guessed, ha ha this hopeless PM talked about the issue about telling people not to buy branded stuff for the Rally.
He can offer nothing solid to help, paying him millions to talk cock.
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Can the PAP ministers reduce their pay to help lift the burden?
They say people cannot expect wages to go up, so I was wondering whether they can set an example with their million dollar salaries.
So can or not PAP regime?
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
Can the PAP ministers reduce their pay to help lift the burden?
They say people cannot expect wages to go up, so I was wondering whether they can set an example with their million dollar salaries.
So can or not PAP regime?
Fat hope. Reduce their salary, old fart will start telling you that your sister, your mother will have to be maids in other countries. -
Originally posted by Chin Eng:
what would you have him to say?
times are bad, please spend more! ?
you need to differentiate between "Shop Wisely" as in your title, and "Not Spending Money" as in your post.
I would have expected him to say that "times are bad but don't worry, we will be reducing the cost of doing business, government fees and offering more subsidies to offset the loses"..something like what the other countries are doing help businesses
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Spending wisely does not mean you dun spend or minimium your spending, you do spend too, but spend on those needed to spend. And in economics, saving is also a gain on the hindsight, you save in banks, banks got money to lend and businessmen borrow to invest, create jobs, you get your salary, you spend and save and back to the cycle.
Leaving the money in the banks is not going to help the economy. Why would business borrow if they are not making money?
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Originally posted by anonymous_dickhead:
I would have expected him to say that "times are bad but don't worry, we will be reducing the cost of doing business, government fees and offering more subsidies to offset the loses"..something like what the other countries are doing help businesses
unfortunately we all have different expectations of what the other party does and say.also unfortunately, if the speech is a matter of fact, people will say it is not encourage. if the speech is too sugar coated, people will say that PAP is just glossing over the issues.
so quite difficult to please all.
i feel that the speech is quite matter of fact. subsidies in different catagory are also offered.
...but one thing he did not say is "don't spend money".
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Originally posted by anonymous_dickhead:
In this year national day speech, our PM says that after a few good years, things are looking bad again. He says that we can weather it.. we can "help ourselves by shopping wisely, going for household brands instead of buying brand names and think before you spend..."
Eh.. does he not have a degree in Economics or Mathematics? Was he not the Finance Minister? How is telling the public not to spend money going to help the economy??
His economic theories continues to baffle me...
i think u even fail ur principles of economics.... the basics...
u still spend, but wisely... not dun spend and put in bank. -
Sounds like doing advertisment for NTUC la.... But come to think of it, which savvy housewife does not know buy housebrand will save... heck, if other brands are cheaper than housebrands.. then buy it.. this is common sense.
Best is PLS dun go JB spend la... then out of singapore economy liao...
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See see!
Mon, Aug 18, 2008
AsiaOne
AN increased number of households now own cars, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. There are now 430,000 households who own cars, as compared to 320,000 households in 2000. This is due to lower vehicle taxes, a move made possible by the increase in ERP charges, he said.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday night, PM Lee explained that government taxes on cars have been reduced despite the increased ERP charges - a move that saves commuters money because they pay less road tax. "The trouble is," said PM Lee, "people may not realise or remember how much road tax they are paying, or even worse, how much road tax they paid last year."
PM Lee elaborates on the ERP charges in the transcript below:
"In 2000, how much do you think it costs to buy a Toyota Corolla all in? $110,000. This year, same car, in fact the salesman will tell you it's a better car, the price has gone down to $64,000. And this is mainly because the government taxes have come down, because the OMV has remained about the same. It's about $19,000 before, now it's $16,000 now. So basically, the government taxes have made the cars a lot more affordable. So the result of this is that there are more cars around us. You can see it, HDB car parks getting more crowded. You can see it on the roads. And therefore because of this, this year we've had to increase ERP charges.
"I know many people are upset by these ERP charges but we have to see the bigger picture because in fact, the ERP charges are enabling us to benefit Singaporeans so as to reduce the burden on you and to enable more Singaporeans to own cars. So when we have to make the adjustment this year, we considered it very carefully, how should we do this without increasing the burden on Singaporeans? And we worked out an ERP package, not just raising the ERP or putting more gantries but reducing road tax at the same time so as to offset it and overall to bring down the cost.
"Let me show you how this works. Before the package, let's take the 1.6L car again. Probably a Toyota but could be another one. Before the package, the ERP was $122, after the package, it's gone up, nearly $200. So it looks very frightening but in fact if you consider the road tax which you have to pay and which we have adjusted, you used to pay $874 of the road tax and now it's come down to $744. So the net effect is that you have a saving, in fact you are saving money rather than out-of-pocket because of the ERP changes. How much? Let's do the sums.
"ERP increase, $76. Road tax reduction, $130. Net savings, $54. So overall, there's a net saving from this package. So we have not increased the burden on Singaporeans, we've actually reduced the burden on Singaporeans by some. The trouble is people may not realise or remember how much road tax they are paying, or even worse, how much road tax they paid last year. And sometimes they may not be the one to pay it.
"I asked one driver how much road tax she paid because she was complaining about the gantries she went through and the beeps which she heard. So she thought a while and then she said to me, I'm not sure, I have to ask my husband. Because she didn't pay the bill, her husband paid the bill and I'm not sure even when the husband paid the bill, he noticed that it was smaller this year. And furthermore, when the husband pays the bill, there's no beep, beep. But when the wife drives the car, each gantry, one beep. So, that is a problem and I think that's part of the reason why people are not happy. And so we have to draw the connections and get people to understand that actually the middle-income Singaporeans have benefited from government policies." -
Copy from CNA forums
Without ERP......... We will be charging you guys with S$80,000 COE, PARF 350%, Fuel Tax 75%, Road Tax 120%, and Insurances another 150% !!!!!!
You guys should feel lucky that we didn't do the above, instead we implimented ERP Gantries to you help you to own Cars................. You guys should be very Grateful to us....................... wake up guys.............
Complain somemore............... We will increase the ERP to 50 % more................complain somemore lah............. -
Increasing GST is to help the poor.
So increasing ERP charges and gantries is to help people own cars lor.
What brilliant policy next?
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In the first place, who ask u to reduce car tax which make ppl afford more cars?. Cat mouse go around come back to same spot
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Next time, increase prices of HDB flats so that people can have more babies.
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That's why the government should not have listened to the whiners who want to own cars in Singapore. Young punks fresh out of school all want to drive....I say cut the number of COEs, let the COE rise to 20-30k. The roads will be less congested and we won't need ERPs then.
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actually i prefer more expensive cars. less congestion. i cursed while driving a lot less 5 years ago than recently. that's why i sold my car.
driving here is really no fun.