Many here believe that our govt hoards money or they are all
very rich. The truth is that whatever that is in our treasury is
OUR money. It composes of our CPF savings as well as our Nation's
tax revenues, including budgets surpluses, due to conservative
spending. The govt is not rich. They are only caretakers of our
money. And as such, they have to be very very careful with it.
Many want more welfare and social action, including giving
handouts from our budget surpluses and $300billion
(S$414.3billion) reserves.
It seems alot of money, but just take a lot on some of the
examples on providing health care costs alone.
Singapore's top killer is Cancer. At least 26% of the population
around 3.5million contracts it. That means 910,000 citizens.
To cure cancer, it would cost around $300,000 and rising for one
patient. That would mean S$273 billion set aside
just to cure our citizens of cancer, leaving only S$141 billion,
even though not all will need medical attention at the same time,
of course!
Heart disease is the second greatest killer in Singapore. The
usual fee is around S$50,000 per citizen = another $45
billion set aside to help our citizens at 80% subsidy.
Just these 2 killers alone will cost our country S$318
billion. What about education, government, military, and
other social costs? And not to mention a significant portion of it
is CPF to be returned to citizens?
Point is - can we afford to provide more social welfare,
espacially in medical aid, costs which are outside of
our nation's control, without incurring more tax revenues
such as GST, more so on our young?
Or should we invest our reserves in a careful manner so that it
may bring long term returns on investments?
As these are our monies, would you dare trust just any joker who
fights for 'freedom of speech', distorts reality, spreads
anarchy to handle and run our funds?
Do think, before one accuses the govt of not caring enough. The
govt has no money. It is our money that will be prudently used. If
everyone asks for handouts, then where will the money come from,
other than from each of us who are slotting hard together,
contributing to make Singapore a better place?
Disclaimer. The figures are not precise, but just in general
only. For exact and precise figures, please go to the relevant
department of statistics for it. This post is written simply and
for general consumption.
