HDB
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'Aren't our present reserves more than adequate? If so, why the need to be so preoccupied with such high reserves at the expense of the individual?'
The amount for the reserves is suppose to be the GDP for a year in singapore. Although I feel tat they should have use some of it during times when we need it, but putting the money there doesn't really hurt us either... The money still belong to us in a sense...
It can add stability to our economy as well...
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belongs to us???Originally posted by stupidissmart:The amount for the reserves is suppose to be the GDP for a year in singapore. Although I feel tat they should have use some of it during times when we need it, but putting the money there doesn't really hurt us either... The money still belong to us in a sense...
It can add stability to our economy as well...
Where??? -
stupidisssmart,
i dont quite agree your opinion. i think singapore have enough of on the fence opinion. making singapore a better place to live in is the govt job, they get paid to do a job, and they have to do a better job.
Well.... who is houseless now ? Comparing between cities our housing is still affordable...
feedback : if other country have run a loan shark bank like our country than prolly no one in the world live in the streets. which cities are you comparing singapore to? KL? Jakarta or Bangkok?
if we are comparing to these country, we are better off slightly. homeless rate doesnt mean everyone can afford a house. it can also mean because we are chinese society, poor man live are taken care by their relative staying together.
Answer is... if they do reduce the money for HDB, they had to increase tax in other forms to cover up their loss. They can easily write a law saying every singaporean get a million each... but wat is the repurcussion or effect ?
As said demand and supply... If demand drops, HDB just have to control supply by reducing building new HDB... Sad to say population still increases in singapore due to migration...
if you mention if HDB price drops, cover by rising tax, if demands drop, HDB reduce supply for flats = reduce income, = rising tax.
either way, isnt we are squeese? if we dont pay high price, we get tax, if demand reduce, we also get tax.
The amount for the reserves is suppose to be the GDP for a year in singapore. Although I feel tat they should have use some of it during times when we need it, but putting the money there doesn't really hurt us either... The money still belong to us in a sense...
why govt keep so much money for? dispite recent super downturn, we still keep for even bad weather??? i can say, we never get our money back. what kind of downturn are we waiting for? end of the world??? -
feedback : if other country have run a loan shark bank like our country than prolly no one in the world live in the streets. which cities are you comparing singapore to? KL? Jakarta or Bangkok?
Our bank r loan shark... wherever do u hear tat from ??? Is our interest rate much higher compare to other cities ? I beg to differ
if we are comparing to these country, we are better off slightly. homeless rate doesnt mean everyone can afford a house. it can also mean because we are chinese society, poor man live are taken care by their relative staying together.
I am comparing income to cost of living in hong kong, shanghai, taipei, seoul. I believe we win and lose in some areas but it all boils down we r roughly the same...
If we compare the population of people tat manage to own a house, singapore appears to be higher than these other cities...if you mention if HDB price drops, cover by rising tax, if demands drop, HDB reduce supply for flats = reduce income, = rising tax.
If HDB price drop, people have to pay more tax to cover the loss of income.
either way, isnt we are squeese? if we dont pay high price, we get tax, if demand reduce, we also get tax.
If demand drops, then they will build lesser HDB flats and may earn lesser income... However from the trend now we do not see a possible reduction in population anytime soon...why govt keep so much money for? dispite recent super downturn, we still keep for even bad weather??? i can say, we never get our money back. what kind of downturn are we waiting for? end of the world???
Tat is a question I want to ask myself.... why save so much money and not use a signficant proportion of them when we need it ? But at least the money is still there... Although we may not see a use of it but at least we and the world feel more secure tat it can be used to prevent any major disaster. -
we dont have enough reserves I feel. $14 billion or $100 billion is too little to rebuild SG if we suffer from some natural disaster (like earthquakes from Indonesia, which happens now and then). They may seem small now, but when one day a big one happens (touch wood), then u will find even 100 billion to be too little. Just imagine if all HDB flats were to be flattened, would $14 billion or even $100 billion be enough to build everything again?Originally posted by stupidissmart:Tat is a question I want to ask myself.... why save so much money and not use a signficant proportion of them when we need it ? But at least the money is still there... Although we may not see a use of it but at least we and the world feel more secure tat it can be used to prevent any major disaster.
Of cos, it does not seem too likely, but it is always best to save up for a rainy day, especially for the things that we never expect to happen to us. That is prudent. -
A state run organ should be pofit making rather than loss making because if not it would be a burden to society. what ever the HDB makes out of Singaporean is just plain ol Economics. While it is indeed a paradox that public housing is so expensive, we do not have enough land to go about for office space, industrial purpose and housing.When we resort to the free market to allocate resources, there will be efficiency but there is inequity.
There should be proper accounting of state organs. It should be noted that this is not the first fiasco involving state organs. Remember when the Telcos liberalised earlier than expected, Singtel (honestly who is its head?) demanded a greater payment, an amount that exceed 1 billion if i am not wrong, for the loss of market share.
I think what miong wishes to point out is, where and how do we see the accounts of the government? is it the right of the citizen for greater transparency, which is like the mantra of our government? Or is it a state secret that we should not divulge to protect our interests (who is "our"?) as in the case of the NTU professor which released a study claiming that foreigners are taking our jobs.
When 77% of our constituencies are not contested in the GE how can we demand our MPs to tell us the truth? And we do know the answer to that qn. -
A state run organ should be pofit making rather than loss making because if not it would be a burden to society. what ever the HDB makes out of Singaporean is just plain ol Economics. While it is indeed a paradox that public housing is so expensive, we do not have enough land to go about for office space, industrial purpose and housing.When we resort to the free market to allocate resources, there will be efficiency but there is inequity.
Tat is very trueI think what miong wishes to point out is, where and how do we see the accounts of the government? is it the right of the citizen for greater transparency, which is like the mantra of our government? Or is it a state secret that we should not divulge to protect our interests (who is "our"?) as in the case of the NTU professor which released a study claiming that foreigners are taking our jobs.
I am a bit blur is does US or other countries state their account publicly for others ? If the rest of the world do then I feel tat they should be more tranparent for the public to scrutinise. However if most countries do not divulge out the details of the account to prevent foreign investors to attack, then I guess tis is the correct way to make it remain as state secrets. -
today i listen to radio about setting high cap for CPF. even our own money need govt for allocation.
i personally like tha australian social benefits style. higher taxes, let medical system be FOC, education FOC. old folks no need to worry about retirement. i understand the repercussion of this system in our society. it just what i hope it will be. richer and working class paying for the less fortunate and older folks.
singapore society just simply take care of youself mentality.
with respect to stupidissmart about our housing standard compare to shanghai, seoul, KL, Hongkong. but do these govt profiteering as much as our govt does? although its a free market, but govt shouldnt be profiteering as much. or simply they dont involve in public housing as much as our govt does. i pretty sure these states you mention about , most ppl are also not happy with the price they are paying for their apartments. but they have no choice, so do us? we are just making noise here that we can do nothing about.
lot of us concern about different things. maybe some care for themselves ,govtand big picture and buy in their policy while remaining of us care about our child, older folks less fortunate. maybe it time for us to compare to eg. how much malaysia are paying for their apartments since we often compare to them for our high salary. comparison might no be rational, but isnt that what our govt compare us with our neighbouring country in the first place?
dont flame me. just me thought. no hard feeling. -
U r right in the sense tat the other countries do not interfere with housing as much as singapore. However such actions only ensure housing price to rise even higher. And u r right tat they r not happy about the high price they have to pay for the housing too.
Too bad for singapore is it is too small and it is trying to attract rich people over to survive... Tat is why Gov doesn't seem to tax the rich heavily as compared wth other countries. Singapore is too small, have no natural resources and do not have a mean to survive without foreign investors. Tis is the same pedicament for other asean countries too... We seems to be just some workers working for the rich european or US companies
Don't worry man
U r right in bringing up the issue. The person in the wrong is probably me who appears to be cutting off the thread 
Speaker corner is for everyone to bring out their issue abotu politics. -
When, think of it. I still must say HDB's ultimate goal should be providing housing - for every Singaporean.
Let's take a look at this if we're in Hong Kong, your room's so small, your wardrobe cabinet doors can't open becos' it is blocked by your bed (This is true you know).
$14 billion of profit? Well, to the government, I think it is good profit. Afterall, they need it for rainy days now. Demands for housing is dropping. -
HAhha....too bad guys. Brought my 5 room at 88K...Originally posted by miong:I remember clearly, when we elected our first local government, our Government promised to make public housing (HDB) affordable for all Singaporeans. If this is true, then how on earth did HDB managed to suck S$14 billion out of ordinary Singaporeans?
And mind you, according to our country's constitution, this indecent sum of public money in HDB's account cannot be used or touched at all !
What is going on Singapore ???
whoever get my flat will be a big carrot!
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88k!!!! How do you do that?!?!? Come on, share the secret with us!!!Originally posted by no_speeding:HAhha....too bad guys. Brought my 5 room at 88K...
whoever get my flat will be a big carrot! -
yes...they want the money from us...when we buy the house.
but when we ask them to repair that and this...they will complain! -
Where did you get dat offer? Wat's the catch? House was formerly a murder scene, fire death etc.?Originally posted by no_speeding:HAhha....too bad guys. Brought my 5 room at 88K...
whoever get my flat will be a big carrot! -
it good to realise that finally singaporean understood they are paying alot of money for their HDB flats. it nuts when few year back some ppl pay over half a million for a HDB flats. and i heard my neighbour pay $400k+ for a 5 room flat in choa chu kang area 15 minutes walk from MRT.
dont rush the market and make HDB richer. HDB flats can make you lose money these days if you bought at the wrong time. you can end up paper lost also even if u r buying new flats. my neighbbour bought 2 year back 240K for 5 room at jurong west area when newly launch. now even years later the area is only 70% occupy and price reduce to below 200k for premier flats for my unit. even at that price, is still alot of money.
buy within our means. stop paying huge money to the HDB who already are loaded and pay their employees heaps of retrenchment benefits only to be re-employ by sister company. -
"...we live in an executive flat in Jurong West, which we moved into three years ago. We bought the flat for $425,000 from HDB.
Early this year, HDB set up a showflat in our area. Similiar to my unit, the flat is being sold for only $310,000.00.
I was shocked and annoyed: my flat had depreciated by $115,000.00- 27 % - in just 3 years! The rate of depreciation is too drastic, even with the economic downturn over the last few years.
HDB flats are supposed to be subsidised and the prices should therefore be reasonable and affordable for Singaporeans.
Does the substantial reduction in pricing mean theat HDB is selling at a loss or had it overpriced its flats earlier?"
(Quote ST Forum 23/7/04) -
Anyway..the foreign reserves are for helping singapore's defense in time of war.
Just think singapore has hundreds of billions in foreign reserves.
just 2 billion could purchase 20 next generation of fighter jets.
and look how much HDB,CPF and IRAS has collected ,and those GLC has earned.
Do you think what is the most appropriate stuff to do when UR $$ is being threatened?
You will definitely use ur $$ to purchase security right? Those GLC like temasek holdings..will definitely use the $$ to fund our battles.
Imagine..just singtel earned over 4 billion SGD..MAS earned over 5 billion
Singapore technologies and SMRT oso earned billions and billions and some of the money goes back to the reserves
Whats the point of having reserves when it stays unsafe?
And during economic crisis hardly anything were used.
I believe it was used for some other purpose.
Like a disaster, considering disaster like earth quake and storms don't hit singapore.
I believe it is for security purposes..yes the hundreds of billion.
2 billion = 20 fighter JETS!
just 100 billions of foreign deposits = 50 x 20 = 1000 fighter jets in arsenal
100 billion can buy almost 60 AEGIS DESTROYERS from USA
or about ....15 russian aircraft carriers + full armed with mig and SU jets
or maybe couple of nuclear warheads to bring pple down
Just think ...If We need to fight the war..not only
we need weapons..we need $$
u can see 2.4 billion USD being spent every month..for Iraq.
If we were to be dragged into a war..the 100 billion can purchase
food, water and military supplies for 4 million population.
wars today are getting expensive...today you don't cut off a branch from a tree and attach a spear to it and den proclaim war
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someone read my above postl eh
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Post new thread lah. What you comment are different from thread topic.Originally posted by SibeiSuayKia:someone read my above postl eh