Lower The Cost Of Living

last SG · 2006-05-08T17:59:04+00:00

sorry, the progressive package $$ given out is not for free.... look at how PAP gave out the carrort in potong pasir n hougang..its also not free, cos they...

sbst275 SG

If they tax less, other taxes will go up

It's just a balance of equation

will4 SG

Thr only thing is prevent oil price from shooting up is when US stopped threatening to hit Iran. Lok at the invasion of Iraq brought little progress.

leoloe SG

i wonder why our ministers pay is so high… the suggestion of lowest household income multiplied by 100 for the pay of the minister… i shall invite steve jobs (apple ceo) to stay here…. annually paid $1 lowest paid CEO . thus ministers salary $100?

Inzaghi SG

of cos..we cant always run a budget deficit if not our future generation will have to pay for our doings..

wat i wanna say is govt should look into how they should better redistribute income through taxes..of cos its not easy..but we have to start along somewhere, if not we will never get anywhere

Aveme SG

Read what i posted above

not enough is the portion of identifying the truely needy.The govt had so far only being using statistic and think based on this,the lowest income bracket are still doing well and thus the effort to help this particular group is not as good as it should be.

Bear in mind that the govt cannot ignore this problem and keep sweeping it under the carpet forever,there will be social cost slowly creeping up on them.Desperate people who really cannot cope with the cost of living can do desperate stuff.Even if social cost does not increase,it will still lead to more disgrunt and will sure come back to haunt them in the next election 5 years later.

sbst275 SG

Even I give a avg low income wage of $1000, so what LTK said of capping it at 20%, would be abt $200

So with $200, they can go to parliment in slippers and shorts

Even he said of muliplying by 100 if they help the poor, so how many are they going to help? Laughing 200 a mth? 400 a mth?

Say cap it @ $10K a mth

sbst275 SG

It's never a easy job to keep cost of living low, external factors are oftenly the ones pushing... But aft this election, they have learn how to learn more on some issues like this

Defintely they can reduce land taxes..

will4 SG

The govt can increase interest rates to curb inflation.

Aveme SG

yes redistribution is needed

when they introduced GST,they lowered the income tax which also included the income tax bracket for the 20% richest,so in effect the rich got taxed less while the burden of our govt's tax coffer is being weighted down on the poor (since in the first place,they did not need to pay much income tax due to low income).The 5% GST in effect increased their burden and created a wider riff btw the rich and the poor in terms of being having enough to survive per day/month/year.

Aveme SG

that would not be a clever way to curb inflation given that singaporeans are so heavily in debt.A increase in the interest rates will means tht the rate at which people repay their loans at will increase as well leading to an even higher burden

will4 SG

So far the inflation rate is still under control? What u mean the cost of living high? U mean the food or medical cost?

Aveme SG

i mean your suggestion of increasing interest rate to curb inflation is only going to increase the cost of living in another form,in the form of higher repayment amount for their HDB Loans,car loans and whatever loans they have.And cost of living high= cost of everything in general,not anything specific as prices of almost everything increased unilaterally

will4 SG

In ur observation lately, what u noticed have increased?

Aveme SG

prices for everything since the last election 5 years ago?

casino_king SG

Property; Petrol…. huge increase… but I notice that they are making the S$ stronger to counter the strong crude oil prices.

casino_king SG

What are they doing to curb property prices?Nothing as far as I can see.

Aveme SG

yup the stronger $ will help but it also has it downside as now export and services out of singapore will become more expensive leading to possible lower export earning.A good example will be our port charges,singapore is the leading port in the area used by tons of ship who pass nearby,now comparatively the cost to use Singapore will increase and some of these ships may just use the port in nearby malaysia

So such deliberate act to control the value of the currency should be done well to ensure a positive balance at the end of the day aka value of savings from lower crude oil price > value of lost earning from lost of export earning.

will4 SG

Our port is well known for their services compared to Malaysia.

Aveme SG

there will come a price where it will just not be value for money even if the service is good so the govt cannot keep using the strategy of increasing the value of the sing $$ to curb the price of crude oil.That can only be a short term solution to help out a bit.

More have to be done on a mirco level to actually control the cost of living in singapore for a particular segment of the population who need it (aka lowest 20% income bracket earners)

casino_king SG

Nobody said that it is risk free and or has no downside... but one observes that they are doing that.

There does not seem to be any action with regards to rising property prices. The rising property prices benefit only the rich with big and multiple houses. It is detrimental to the poor especially those who does not own a property or a tiny property. It is also devastating for those living in leased properties and that is the majority of Singaporeans who lives in HDB leased units.

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