Are you ready for 7 million people on tiny Singapore?
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Mdm Koh:
I'm glad to answer your questions. The increase in defence spending is 4% of previous year's budget (around 500 million) and not 4% (12 billion!) of GDP. WeiHan was going on and on about healthcare spending and likes to use the developed countries as a benchmark. (So I assume that WeiHan is not talking about loose change of a few hundred million :evil: ) As Singapore govt spending as % of GDP is less than half of these developed countries, we will need to ramp our our healthcare spending very significantly to match theirs.Well, I was asking Irrelevant since he made the assumption that if we increase healthcare spending, we will need to cut spending elsewhere.
But you are right - I shall read more to prep myself for further debates.
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raysusan:
Not beyond the realms of reality I suppose, and it's conceivable that there are some GRLs that feel that way. All the same, feels a little too contrived.This \"letter\" is making the rounds in some forum, purportedly written by a grassroots leader.
http://therealsingapore.com/content/letter-grassroots-leader-pm
very interesting letter
[We are not sure of its authenticity. Read it and judge for yourself:] -
Mdm Koh:
Well, I was asking Irrelevant since he made the assumption that if we increase healthcare spending, we will need to cut spending elsewhere.
Mdm Koh, you seem reasonably articulate, the budget is a matter of public record, why don't you go look it up, instead of forming an opinion in a vacuum? How do you know they cut spending elsewhere?3Boys:
[quote=\"Mdm Koh\"]Irrelevant,
Singapore's defence expenditure went up by more than 4% last year.
Where did the government get the money from? Since the government did not dip into reserves, another area must have suffered a substantial cut in spending.
So it's justifiable to cut spending elsewhere to increase defence spending but not vice versa?
But you are right - I shall read more to prep myself for further debates.[/quote]Mdm Koh, you will find as you get more practiced at researching this type of info, that many misconceptions will fall away.
Don't believe people who say that the garment hides information away, a lot pertinent information is out there, and by understanding them, one gets a healthy understading of why leadership does things they way they do. One may not necessarily agree, but knowledge is power, yes? -
Irrelevant:
As Singapore govt spending as % of GDP is less than half of these developed countries, we will need to ramp our our healthcare spending very significantly to match theirs.
It's not a matter of deciding let's spend x% of GDP on healthcare. It's a matter of deciding what needs to be done to make healthcare more affordable for Singaporeans, and then project how much it will cost. A question such as \"how many % of GDP we should spend on healthcare\" is putting the cart before the horse.
Given that Singapore gov had underspent on public healthcare for the last decade or two, it is natural that it has to spend more just to play catch-up.
Yeah, yeah. Some would question my statement that we had underspend on healthcare for the last decade or two. But the fact remains that we had underbuilt hospitals (90% occupancy rates!) and underproduced doctors. Yep. I am from the generation where students get rejected from medical school because their results were too good and were told to go do engineering. \"We don't want all our top students doing medicine.\" Hence the present shortage of hospital beds and the need to import FT doctors. Hence our present inadequate medical school capacity (cannot get enough qualified teaching staff!) and the necessity for the gov to pay to send our kids to overseas medical school. I don't even want to talk about the shortage of nurses. -
pirate:
I would agree we have underinvested significantly in healthcare. But then, all countries struggle with the issue of healthcare funding. Is there a benchmark? I suppose we can use a few, but in my view, an outcomes benchmark is more important than a spending benchmark.Irrelevant:
As Singapore govt spending as % of GDP is less than half of these developed countries, we will need to ramp our our healthcare spending very significantly to match theirs.
It's not a matter of deciding let's spend x% of GDP on healthcare. It's a matter of deciding what needs to be done to make healthcare more affordable for Singaporeans, and then project how much it will cost. A question such as \"how many % of GDP we should spend on healthcare\" is putting the cart before the horse.
Given that Singapore gov had underspent on public healthcare for the last decade or two, it is natural that it has to spend more just to play catch-up.
Yeah, yeah. Some would question my statement that we had underspend on healthcare for the last decade or two. But the fact remains that we had underbuilt hospitals (90% occupancy rates!) and underproduced doctors. Yep. I am from the generation where students get rejected from medical school because their results were too good and were told to go do engineering. \"We don't want all our top students doing medicine.\" Hence the present shortage of hospital beds and the need to import FT doctors. Hence our present inadequate medical school capacity (cannot get enough qualified teaching staff!) and the necessity for the gov to pay to send our kids to overseas medical school. I don't even want to talk about the shortage of nurses. -
From Vivian Balakrishnan....
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151186762841207&set=a.10150136201901207.284720.30332546206&type=1&theater
Political suicide vs Demographic extinction.
I would prefer to have a smaller population of foreigners in our Singapore but ......
We are facing the crisis of our lifetime. Our citizen population will halve every two generations. But that is a 'long' term problem. The real emergency is not babies, but ageing. That is why the population will increase in the short term before the inevitable decrease in the long term.
We are one of the fastest ageing nations in the world. By 2030, the number of senior citizens older than 65 years will triple to 900,000. Who will look after us? Today, we have almost six working-age citizens for every senior. In 2030, we will only have two. Even if we suddenly have an epidemic of babies now, they will only be 17 years old in 2030. Hence, we will need some kind of 'top up' over the next two decades - foreigners to work with us, care for us, pay taxes and to help create opportunities. Actually even 1M extra foreigners will still mean far less young people supporting seniors than today. However, I believe we must learn to do more with less. Actually, I hope we will need fewer foreigners. Only time will tell. In the meantime, it is essential that we start building ahead of demand and re-organise ourselves to ensure that our quality of life is enhanced and our children continue to have even more opportunities in a vibrant Singapore.
Our main focus must be the hopes, dreams and fears of our current 3.2 M Singapore citizens and our future children. Everyone and everything else is secondary.
The headline numbers and the speed of change are scary - but we must keep our cool and decide confidently as one people on our future destiny regardless of politics. That is why the government is taking such a big political risk in publishing http://population.sg/
BTW, I found this lecture by Prof Hans Rosling fascinating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vog3uZ47O8 ā with Vivian Balakrishnan. -
3Boys:
I would agree we have underinvested significantly in healthcare. But then, all countries struggle with the issue of healthcare funding. Is there a benchmark? I suppose we can use a few, but in my view, an outcomes benchmark is more important than a spending benchmark.
Yes! A spending benchmark is putting the cart before the horse. -
Irrelevant:
Ah, I see. Thanks!
I'm glad to answer your questions. The increase in defence spending is 4% of previous year's budget (around 500 million) and not 4% (12 billion!) of GDP. WeiHan was going on and on about healthcare spending and likes to use the developed countries as a benchmark. (So I assume that WeiHan is not talking about loose change of a few hundred million :evil: ) As Singapore govt spending as % of GDP is less than half of these developed countries, we will need to ramp our our healthcare spending very significantly to match theirs.Mdm Koh:
Well, I was asking Irrelevant since he made the assumption that if we increase healthcare spending, we will need to cut spending elsewhere.
But you are right - I shall read more to prep myself for further debates.
Well, if we don't increase the percentage of GDP that we spend on healthcare, what if there comes a year when our GDP doesn't increase significantly? That means the expenditure (in terms of actual dollars) will not go up, right?
I read an interesting article just now about how mass immigration isn't going to work.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/ponzi-schemes-built-on-people-always-crash-too.html
Will Singapore become a bad example to leaders of other nations with slowing economic growth? :yikes:
Actually the author has a point. If our economic growth is so reliant on immigration, what happens the day our little island cannot take anymore people? Or is LHL thinking that by then he'd be retired and it won't be his problem to solve?
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Irrelevant:
Did I just use developed countries as a benchmark? I showed a table which shows the data for all countries. Singapore ranks among the last even when comparing with developing countries and many oppressive regimes. It reflects badly about how this gov treats its citizens.
I'm glad to answer your questions. The increase in defence spending is 4% of previous year's budget (around 500 million) and not 4% (12 billion!) of GDP. WeiHan was going on and on about healthcare spending and likes to use the developed countries as a benchmark. (So I assume that WeiHan is not talking about loose change of a few hundred million :evil: ) As Singapore govt spending as % of GDP is less than half of these developed countries, we will need to ramp our our healthcare spending very significantly to match theirs.Mdm Koh:
Well, I was asking Irrelevant since he made the assumption that if we increase healthcare spending, we will need to cut spending elsewhere.
But you are right - I shall read more to prep myself for further debates.
As for defense spending, I provided a list of data and nothing more need to be argued. Singapore spending on defense is almost 4% of GDP. To put it perspective, a few countries in war mode spend less than 3% on their defense (Taiwan, South Korea). -
What worries me is not that we'll have 7 million people by 2030, but that there may not be an end to our increasing appetite for and dependence on FT & FW. Here is an interesting viewpoint :-
http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/02/rules-managers-turn-immigrants
We Singaporeans really have to start with the small stuff, like returning our trays at foodcourts, not littering, helping to keep our common corridors and public toilets clean ...
Then, if we were in an utopian society, everyone should volunteer at least 2 hr of their time every week to help out at old folks homes, childcare centres, after school care centres, ...
And the government can give incentives and research grants to innovations that help improve the lives of the aged and handicapped and not just to green projects ...
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