Well, what else can they do? Introduce western welfarism into
Singapore? The common arguement is that this will disintegrate
peoples motivation to work and be a disinsentive for investments.
So, helping the poor and down trodden of society is a just cause,
no one sane can argue can against it. However, the question lies
upon how we are to pay for it. Juxtaposing the above strategy with
the increament of the GST, I’ll say that the
height in indirect taxes serves the cause and cushions any social
impact in the alteration of policy. While some will argue that the
GST taxes the middle class and in fact,
worsens the plight of the poor, an introduction of western
welfarism will lead to a fall in investments which will ultimately
mean lesser jobs for Singaporeans and in the end make us all less
well off. I am argueing this in the context of our current
situation, of which, I might not be exactly the biggest fan of.
However, reality precedes idealism and I hope we can have an
objective discussion on this topic. To those who have taken offence
to what I’ve written, I apologise.
