19-03-2023, 06:04 AM
Some how I missed this budget speech when it first came out.
Singapore has been sprucing up GDP by attracting rich and high income earners. This helps to make Singapore look like an affluent society on the surface.
Under the hood is another story. Singapore's rising income inequality and rising poverty shows that our society is has made little progress in improving the lives of many citizens for the past 2 decades. The hardship among the poor worsened last 2 years as inflation had a huge negative impact on real wages. Cost of housing in particular left them worse off as the upgrade path is cut off. There is no way marginal gains if any of wages of low income Singaporeans' can ever make up for the sharp rise in housing costs.
A few days ago the govt announced "shelter like" housing for poor elderly with shared kitchens and toilets. They tell us it is a step forward from being homeless. Skeptics commented that we are heading towards "caged homes" of Hong Kong. What progress? "Sad" is the word to describe the situation.
Common sense tells you that if you keep packing more people on a small island housing will be a problem but this logic seems.lost with our current leaders.
The PAP claims they want to alleviate povery but has worsened it through its policies. They then use band aid to patch the problem e.g. progressive wage, GST vouchers etc the effects of which are negligible to the size of problems caused by its policies in the first place.
![[Image: ZCVGwFY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ZCVGwFY.jpg)
![[Image: dXbeozL.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/dXbeozL.jpg)
![[Image: 8RBZzuk.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/8RBZzuk.jpg)
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/p...eon-perera
Singapore has been sprucing up GDP by attracting rich and high income earners. This helps to make Singapore look like an affluent society on the surface.
Under the hood is another story. Singapore's rising income inequality and rising poverty shows that our society is has made little progress in improving the lives of many citizens for the past 2 decades. The hardship among the poor worsened last 2 years as inflation had a huge negative impact on real wages. Cost of housing in particular left them worse off as the upgrade path is cut off. There is no way marginal gains if any of wages of low income Singaporeans' can ever make up for the sharp rise in housing costs.
A few days ago the govt announced "shelter like" housing for poor elderly with shared kitchens and toilets. They tell us it is a step forward from being homeless. Skeptics commented that we are heading towards "caged homes" of Hong Kong. What progress? "Sad" is the word to describe the situation.
Common sense tells you that if you keep packing more people on a small island housing will be a problem but this logic seems.lost with our current leaders.
The PAP claims they want to alleviate povery but has worsened it through its policies. They then use band aid to patch the problem e.g. progressive wage, GST vouchers etc the effects of which are negligible to the size of problems caused by its policies in the first place.
![[Image: ZCVGwFY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ZCVGwFY.jpg)
![[Image: dXbeozL.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/dXbeozL.jpg)
![[Image: 8RBZzuk.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/8RBZzuk.jpg)
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/p...eon-perera