Making It Easy For The Rich Does Not Make The Rest Of Us Richer
April 13th, 2023 | 
Author: How many times in the past year have you seen celebratory headlines in the MSM proclaiming ever more family firms being set up in Singapore to manage the funds of the super-rich?
We were even told in the past that if 10 more billionaires migrated to Singapore and increased the Gini coefficient, well that was not a bad thing because the wealth they create would “trickle down” to the rest of society and make every one better off.
Let me ask those of you who are old enough to remember the 80s and 90s in Singapore a few questions:-
1. Did you have a better quality of life towards the end of the last century or has the quality of your life improved since the turn of the century?
2. Was it easier for you to buy a decent home when you were starting out in life or is it easier for your children now to purchase their home?
3. Were job opportunities more plentiful when you were starting out or are there more job opportunities for your family now since treaties such as CECA came into place?
By any measure, the lives of Singaporeans have not improved but regressed this century.
We have a government that still believes firmly in “trickle down” economics. It is a case where the theory and rhetoric of neo-liberalism rant on despite the evidence all around us.
The Edge ran a very good article today describing how the rich from China who have made Singapore their playground have indulged in all sorts of luxuries such as buying mansions, fancy cars and driving up the price of golf club memberships to astronomical levels, but have not invested much in Singapore!
These are the people who have driven up home prices, rentals and COEs etc. The PAP government accords them the privilege of low tax rates and other business friendly policies.But as the Edge notes, these people are already well entrenched with their investments globally. Capital is so mobile these days you have to be wet behind your ears to believe that a billionaire will necessarily invest locally simply because he is resident here.
For these rich people, it is socialism to the hilt but for the rest of us it is brutal capitalism at its harshest.
So next time the PAP tells you to be proud of the gleaming city they have created, or what Ronald Reagan once described as “That shining city on the hill”, ask them for whom was that shining city built?
It is no paradise to the ordinary Singaporean, many of whom are having to work more than one job to make ends meet, to live in the “Monte Carlo” of Asia,the most expensive city in the World.
Lim Tean
Posted in 
For many,lives has get worse not better.
More need to be done to bring the down the high cost of living here for the ordinary Citizen.No glory to be one of the most expensive city when the people do not have the Cash to enjoy it.
Also create more good paying jobs for the Citizens to enjoy and retire comfortably here.
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1. Even in the late 19th century, when the British Empire was at its peak of power and prosperity, and London was the capital of this global colonial enterprise, there were still slums on the Thames, filled with working class people making ends meet. And what did Her Majesty and her Government, and the elite of the landed aristocracy, merchants, industrialists, financiers, people who profited handsomely from Empire, do for them, to elevate them? The rich got richer, the poor got poorer! I never believed in the trickle down economic rhetoric of Thatcher and Reagan because I put my money more on the Laws of Human Nature.
2. Lee Kuan Yew was a realist. He knew that for the electorate to continually vote for his authoritarian system of governance, he had to offer and deliver … job opportunities, affordable housing, manageable costs of living, a sense of ‘we are in this together’. Now what is there? Foreign ‘talents’, 6-figure public housing, inflation, a class divide arising from income inequality and elitism rooted in academic meritocracy.
At the bottom line, I am only here because I neither have the professional skills nor the ultra-high net worth to start a new life in another country. And I don’t think I am the only one in Singapore to think so.
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It is so sickening to hear people blaming *supply chain* issues as the *REASON* for the current run on inflation ALL OVER THE WORLD.
me thinks a large part of HIGH INFALTION today ari$es from EXTREME GREED.
If SUPPLY ISSUE is THE CAUSE OF THIS ROUND OF INFLATION- owing to COVID,WAR IN UKRAINE- WILL INFLATION DROP ONCE UKRIANE WAR CEASES N COVID’S CONSTRAINTS GET EASED OFF- when the IMPACT OF GREED ON HIGHER INFLATION(thus,COL) IS HUGE?
Look at HIGH STOCK MARKET VALUATIONS ,is it due to supply chain or MANIPULATION BY GREEDY HUMAN$,one way or another?
And,look at PROFITS OF BANKS,even banks here?
Supply issues?
HOW?!
THE REAL CULPRIT FOR THE CURRENT SPATE OF HIGH INFLATION HAS MORE TO DO WITH EXTREME
HUMAN GREED MORE SO THAN SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES,PERIOD.
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Don’t worry, the election will be delayed till end of 2025 so that the MIW can salvage the poor ground sentiments arising from high COL, property prices and so on. Come 2024 there will be a bonanza of GST vouchers, rebates, media propaganda of the good old days and so on. Bigshot ministers will announce reviews of housing policies, foreign (or global) talent hiring and COL measures etc.
Before long, the dafts will be falling head over heels in love with the MIW again. All will be well….until after the election. But that’s OK, coz the dafts have very short attention span anyway.
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LT, in your 2nd paragraph
……………. because the wealth they create would “trickle down” to the rest of society and make every one better off.
Probably the right word is not WEALTH but the SKYROCKETED-PRICE that is “trickle down” instead
For this I mean even the Public Housing (HDB), especially the BTO and the resale flats have also skyrocketed – $M HDB flats which we hardly see in the past.
Not forgetting the COE. I reckon, in the next one or two bidding exercise, CAT A will likely cross the $100K mark. Even the COE of the two wheel machine(Motorcycle) that mostly used for “bread and butter” transport also hit @$12K.
So the “tricking down” is not for the benefit to the people at large but rather it causes more suffering having already hit by the escalating cost of living from the GST hike, Transport cost (Bus Fare), Food, etc.
Keep believing in them will only suffer more and more period.
Sigh!!!
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So exactly what is your problem? The rich for being rich? For coming here because they are invited with open arms and legs? For not giving up their wealth because you want it? Are they responsible for voting the Regime into power time and time again? Or for bringing in more FT? For making you take the Death Shot? For CoVID? Are they the one you will pin your blame on because the island is f*cked?
F $inkies decide to live on communist island, volunteer as Guinea Pigs for Big Pharma and become Grab drivers, who is responsible for that? On the other hand, if the rich leave, will things get better for $inkies?
The problem is with the voters. There is no one else to blame for $inkieland’s rotten policies and the future of the local-born.
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Pappy ib follow their masters to blame the people.
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Making It Easy For The Rich Does Not Make The Rest Of Us Richer.
So you saying make it difficult for the rich ?
Just look at China, in the end what happen ? Everywhere retrenchment, workers and graduates cannot find jobs, workers 瞓街邊 瞓紙皮 瞓天橋底,公園, 地下道….
Eventually have to summon Jack Ma back illustrate clearly.
Tech: Do you know how much the garang guni makes in a month? You are so ignorant! have you ever see these people who slept in underpasses, under the bridges, etc. Do you even know who are they?
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