Recently I was thinking about the GST Offset Package Singaporeans are getting now. At first glance, it was a dream come true, like the one before - free money! But when I dwelled upon longer, I realized that this money, all S$5b of it, is entirely from taxpayers' pockets! That's practically just giving our money back to us!
First of all, have we forgotten what taxes are for? Why isn't the government spending our money on more practical things! For S$5, they could have done many other things that can offset the lower income group, like raising the pay, directly or indirectly, of lower income jobs, or blue-collar jobs. They could have raised the pay of teachers. They could have created a trust fund for some charity, and stop fukin making students waste their time selling fukin flags!
True, it does exactly what the name says - it offsets the GST hikes. But, aren't there many ways to achieve the same goal for the "lower-income groups"?
I must admit I am no economist, but is this not common sense? This money is of little use to us in the long term, but it sure grabs our attention. While giving us our own money seems like a damned good way to help us, for S$5b, you could have built and maintained a few free clinics for the needy for years! Or set up a pro bono legal firm for them!
Heck, with the things the government is capable of doing, they can easily make it compulsory for all practicing lawyers to spend a few days per year in that firm. Like NS, except it's for lawyers. Maybe it's already done, I don't know. But I know for sure S$5b can cover all the expenses for a few of such firms for decades. Pro bono firms won't have much in the way of expenses except for rent and utility bills and beverages. Very likely, they wont even hit S$10k a month!
That's what they have in the U.S.! According to this link here, all their lawyers donate at least 50 hours a year for precisely those who cannot afford a lawyer. What would the poor need a lawyer for? What about a will, just so that drug addict in the family won't get a single dime from a dying parent? What about for the elderly father to sue his son for selling his home without his consent?
And free clinics! Why not? At the moment, we pay about S$10-20 for simple medicine like those for flu or a cough in polyclinics. I don't know if they are already completely subsidised for the very poor or the elderly, but if they aren't, with S$5 they could have easily done so!
With free clinics, you can allow entry only for the "lower-income groups" and the elderly. How can that be done? Simple. You can always issue special passes or set up IC scanners at the entrances. C'mon, if they are able to save that S$10-20 everytime they fall sick, that's about 5-15 meals for a lot of people. At the same time, you can reduce the queue time in polyclinics.
I never thought there are such poor people in Singapore, until recently I remembered those elderly women (or men, sometimes), searching within public trash bins for empty cans. Sometimes, if one goes to the hawker centres at the right time, you can see kind-hearted hawkers giving them a free lunch. Sometimes, they can be seen in the wet market asking for the cheapest stuff available - leftovers that no one is buying and will never buy, aka stuff that are almost (or already is) rotting.
This is something the regular guy doesn't see unless he is aware of this and keeps an eye out for such. These days, my family doesn't throw our cans in the bin anymore, because my mum frequently sees this old lady who collects them to sell somewhere. What is really surprising to me is that she actually thanked my mum profusely when she first "donated" them.
These people deserve to live too! So what if they grab the free tabloids, like Today, from the racks in stacks? Let them! We don't need it, we only want it. They not only want it, they need it! Needs come before wants, and that's pure common sense.
I'm not thinking about karang guni when I mention "lower-income". They buy newspapers from us for a few cents per stack, or sometimes pick them up for free outside our flats. Then they choose all the usable pieces and resell them to hawkers and anyone else for about $0.50( I think) per kg. And you think they're "poor"? I'd put them under "lower-middle"!
I cannot get rid of this thought from my mind. S$5b wasted just like that! Half of it is probably given to those who don't need it. Think of how much can be accomplished with just a mere third of this sum!
you must admit, they're really efficient in creating a sense of market economy. it's called circulation. they give you a couple hundred dollars, then take it back within a month.
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