isnt escalating costs of living, termed as inflation, unless you
want to live in a communist society like Myanmar where the
government decided everything you lived and the prices in the
market.
its the work of market forces, unfortunately in the capitalist
market, where market decides the prices. even communist china is
adopting capitalism.
Firstly, Myanmar is not exactly a "communist society" - it is a
country that is subjected to the tyranny of Military Rule by a
Military Junta of Generals holding all the ministerial positions,
with no socialist nor capitalist nor Marxist ideologies to
guide their policy making decisions. This explains for
the directionless mess that they are in.
Secondly, in the Singapore situation - has it not been that
the PAP Government decides almost everything - from the
mundane social and cultural issues to political and economic
matters ?
Thirdly, in Singapore - do you seriously believe that the PAP
Government will allow itself to be subjected to the vagaries of
market forces ?
Even as the PAP preaches that it allowmarket
forces to determine how resources are to be used, and for it
to be the arbiter of all values - the PAP Government will
tweak the conditions that affect the forces to its own favor
and to achieve its own goals.
Taking the COE as a case study - when there was a freak bid
of $1, there was a frantic rush to plug the loophole, and in the
next bidding the COE prices rose to five figure value
again.
Given a perfect market place where market forces is allowed to
exist - can one seriously believed that Singaporeans are dumb
to bid $30,000 for a COE - when the COE scheme was
first launched and when there was no experience to start
with ?
The COE system was designed to be non-transparent and subject to
behind the scene manipulation.
This becomes quite obvious as seen whenever
any GLC owned Taxi company replaces its fleet of
vehicles, the COE will see a drastic drop in value.
If the Government allow perfect market forces to take place, the
wages of our workers would not be suppressed by the deliberate
importing of cheap foreign workers.
When land prices are at its lowest, and even when developers are
keen to replenish their land bank, the URA will not release any
land for sale.
The URA will not sell even when the developers compete with each
other but their bid price will be rejected when it does not
meet with the price that is desired by the URA.
When the URA is determined to sell at its set high price
- despite the prevailing circumstances - this can only result
in land cost being artificially set by the URA - that is
controlled by a PAP Minister at the helm of the Ministry of
National Development.
With the land cost determining the selling price of the
developed units, and forming the basis and major part of all
operating costs for any business enterprises, which will be passed
on to the consumers - this can only result in a multiplier
effect on the cost of living for Singaporeans.
