Problem , Mr Goh, is that most singaporeans will not accept that
type of social contract.
Take for example :
Everyone wants to get into university
limited university places
have to go overseas
but singaporeans taxed to highly to even consider overseas
so how?
Want to buy HDB flat
( i.e. in stockholm all their places are expensive despite
taxes)
Price tag too high
tax also killing the savings
how?
Bearing in mind , swedish wages are phenomenonly high to compensate
for a high taxation system. In sweden (if I work there) , I can
earn 3k USD per month . Who in singapore wants to pay me that
amount? The singaporean job equivalent to that swedish job will
only pay me SGD 2K only at most.
Sweden has IT and communication infrastructures, and advanced
technological R&D industries - and in order to pay their
workers - phone and internet charges in sweden are ridiculously
high ...I nearly choked when my friend told me about her trip there
- she was whining about her phone bills.
Alot of their MNCs investors are homegrown or came out as a result
of a merger- Ikea , Astra-Zeneca (expensive drugs ++++) , Ericsson,
Volvo and Saab ( now sold but they still retain factories in
sweden), Electrolux, Absolut vodka (their government owned alcohol
company) and alot of others. And may I note they use their LOCAL
TALENTS ....not FOREIGN ONES. Of course their homegrowns
continually invest in the country where they begun their humble
beginnings.
Singapore has minimal homegrown MNCs to employ
locals - DBS barely qualify -....Temasek holdings maybe, so far it
is Creative that I know is a homegrown MNC . In addition to
outsourcing to foreigners - some singaporeans may not even have a
job.
So we cannot really compare the swedish system or the scandinavian
system to Singapore to implement their socialist policies. One
thing to note : they are also protective of their job markets too ,
they do not have a foreign talent policy like Singapore does.
