Singapore's People Power

last SG · 2008-11-12T10:33:24+00:00

let's hear your solution..When property prices started to rise in 2006, I said that it was urgent that they do something about it (http://209.85.175.104/sear...

xtreyier SG

If people stop spending, hoard money, the first to go will be the mom and pop shops - our domestic economy.

Their savings to fund their little sole proprietor biz will run out, and their next month rent and overheads, which they have little say over the matter, will be the final blow.

From the humble kopi stall run by an apek in the food centre to the printing shops in Shenton way, they will become unemployed.

They will not be able to pay for electricity, even for meals and many will be running to CDCs for help. Our society's coffers are only limited, and there is so much needed to give money to.

Some will be forced to sell the home, some even at a loss, so as not to incur more heavy debts. Some will take to drinking, some to stealing and robbing, some to prostitution and the vices as times get desperate and this vicious cycle is repeated into the other 2/3 sectors of our economy.

Our domestic economy would be first to be in ruin. And the ones who will benefit will be the elites and rich, who hoard the most money to buy stuff cheap.

Would you, with all conscience, buy such properties or products, benefitting from another's misery, whom is your fellow citizen, an offspring of our forefathers?

When you suggest stop spending, it's the poor who will suffer. I know singaporeans to be apathetic, but the suggestion to stop spending is horrendously apalling, even if it is for 2 months!. I know not what other words to say....

xtreyier SG

To save our domestic economy:-

1. Energy costs must be lowered. Fortunately it is within the control of our govt. In another 2 months, it will drop at least 50%, due to current oil prices which it is pegged to.

Our govt can 'subsidize' it temporary. Either they do this or biz will go bust.

2. This is the time our toothless tiger - Case - to step in and stop cartel-like pricing in food and essential items pricings by associations and distributors.

Prices of raw materials had drop significantly and yet finished products had not drop in tandem. A bun costing 30Cts last year is now 1.20Cts, even with cheap China labour and lower ingredient costs.

3. Landlords must be brought to bear and realize that if they do not reduce rents, they will face excessive stocks on hands and pay even more for their investments and loans.

Better to have some money than none at all. This is a crisis now, and not a boom time period.

4. Banks will have to re-adjust their loan portfolios, perhaps extend the repayment periods of existing biz and property owners, or lower their interest rates.

Defaults will kill banks. Owe a thousand, the purchaser will be in trouble, but if the purchaser owes the bank millions, the bank is in trouble.

5. The most critical of all, is you - the consumer. If you are not willing to spend, only to hide your pathetic savings under the pillow, then all measures are useless. Lets all die together then.

That rainy day to spend has come and is today. Only by saving its own domestic economy will there be funds to save the world if each country practise this.

AndrewPKYap SG