Are you ready for 7 million people on tiny Singapore?
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JannettLee:
I'm still waiting le :evil: :laugh:[/quote]Good things come to those who waits..... by all means... do you need help with camping gears? :cheeky:
:rotflmao: :rotflmao:3Boys:
[quote=\"JannettLee\"]
You understand? let me 洗耳恭听！
All I know is many countries are cutting their defence budget including US and also reducing their NS term(for those mandatory). Why Singapore is not following suit? They are so many foreigners here in Singapore, you thought our neighbors dare attack us?
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Moderator's Note
Gentle reminder !
Members are reminded to focus on the discussion topic. We may openly disagree with points being made, but we should not insult the person/s making the points.
Thank you. -
Moderation action has been taken to embargo all posts involving name-calling.
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no embargo of the person who persisted in making the name calling? Why I got a feeling treatment is different from a previous forumer who had been embargoed? will such people stop such behavior?
ChiefKiasu:
Moderation action has been taken to embargo all posts involving name-calling.
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For the record. Not that'll change anything....
3Boys:
One should note, there is agreement even in this fractious forum, that the lowest quintile of families get back more in rebates than what they pay in GSTs. That being the case, it is inevitable that as you head up the ladder, some families will flip from a positive balance to a negative balance. It's plain mathematics. Are some families worse off in this current construct than say, before 2005? I am sure there are. They question is, how many, and by how much. My back of the envelope calculation of the 60k income family, is that given the worse case, where they did not benefit from an income tax reduction, was that they may be worse off by $95 a month. Yes, there is also consideration about retirement, but if one has built up a CPF nest egg (accumulated tax free), then one should not be completely destitute. Further, it was already stated when a consumption tax was promulgated, that part of the reason is that we may have a shrinking workforce and we need to expand taxation beyond just working adults. Yes, that's you, Mr Retiree, Mrs SAHM, Ms Uni student. There is no magic about it, GST types taxes are used worldwide precisely to avoid overtaxing only income earners.
Since neither you or I are a tax expert or a Nobel Laureate economist, then I suggest one be circumspect about one's expertise in the field. I detect a distinct lack of circumspection since you deem yourself to be superior in intellect and motivation to our ministers, and feel qualified to instruct our ministers in constructing a tax code.JannettLee:
The way you are telling us is that those people paid Millions of $ of salary to implement policies did not look at it from all sides of the picture because they are just unable to articulate and convince all of us why there is a need to implement GST and yet reduce income tax from 25% to 20%. Most of us can only see that what they are doing only benefits the few % of the really rich. Worst still, there are still a minority that don't even know about this fact and can argue that GST implementation and cutting top-tier income tax benefits the majority of Singaporeans! What a pitiful soul... They are living in their own world or what? :slapshead:
I did not say the GST benefits the majority of Singaporeans directly. From time to time, governments change or modify their tax rates to keep the country competitive. And in a competitive economy, we are therefore able to generate high value jobs for Singaporeans. And if government revenues are kept up, they have greater degrees of freedom to disburse help to the most needy. So the payoff is indirect.
Does the tax code benefit the MAJORITY of Singaporeans?
I believe the tax code is crafted to benefit SINGAPORE, and in doing so, benefits SINGAPOREANS in general, either directly or indirectly.
By the way, you will know from reading my other posts, that I support an INCREASE in income taxes (and retaining GST).
Life is not as simple as you make it.
Yeah, there are many many little populist things you can do, exempt basic goods, exempt medical, blah blah. Every single one creates another loophole and another layer of bureaucracy, which then causes leakage and sucks up costs to administer, instead of saving those dollars and giving them back to the needy. It's not just the taxes that need to be kept lean, the administration of taxes should also be lean. People ignore this concept. Further, if you lose tax revenue on such items, and have a shortfall in revenue, then what do you do? Raise taxes on other items? Extend the reach of income tax into the middle class? Everybody likes to propose airy fairy ideas but no one considers the trade offs.
If taxes are raised, do people expect to come out behind? Well, generally, that is the intent! Raising taxes is a way for the government to raise revenue from its people. If everyone expects to get back more in rebates than they pay in raised taxes, what's the point of raising taxes in the first place? It should not be the expectation that one immediately gets back in rebates enough to completely offset the GST increase. People who argue so are standing its argument on its head.
You know about the only certainty in life being death and taxes.....
The only other certainty I feel right now is that I am going to regret even posting this......... -
Moonsun55:
If you will, please do a search on whoever you believe is involved in name calling and provide us with the links to these posts that you find objectionable for our review.no embargo of the person who persisted in making the name calling? Why I got a feeling treatment is different from a previous forumer who had been embargoed? will such people stop such behavior?
ChiefKiasu:
Moderation action has been taken to embargo all posts involving name-calling.
Thank you. -
I must say I feel a little disappointed that not more people weighed in against the ridiculous notion that our island is not defensible.
Having dutifully served NS and ICTs over the years, and having held some positions of responsibility in that time, I have no doubt that there is no country in the region that can mount a successful invasion of Singapore, and it is down to the professionalism and strength of our armed forces, not the presence of foreigners. If you are not familiar, here is a good book to read.
http://www.questia.com/library/98854885/defending-the-lion-city-the-armed-forces-of-singapore
Anyone familiar with our history, will realize that our present state of economic development, international standing, and indeed, independence, owes a whole lot to the strength of the SAF.
To have an uninformed individual come in and make the preposterous statement that we owe our peace to the presence of foreigners, on Feb 15th no less, is singularly OFFENSIVE!
No one who knows or values our soldiers, our independence, should grant this notion any quarter whatsoever. Rather than standing on the sidelines and chomping popcorn, it'd be nice if there were more than a few would speak up here to disabuse the uninformed of such an egregious notion, forcefully. -
3Boys:
I must say I feel a little disappointed that not more people weighed in against the ridiculous notion that our island is not defensible.
Cannot. It would entail disclosing how the island can be defended, and that would be a breach of military secrecy. So I am not even going there just to argue the point with some person on an online forum. Thus I am staying out of this. Suffice it to say I would rather not have our boys defend the island by throwing rocks or shooting arrows. :nunchuk: -
3Boys, you and other forummers are doing a fantastic job of explaining and re-explaining. Not sure if there is any value-add in joining in but certainly understand where you people are coming from.
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3Boys:
:goodpost: :thankyou:I must say I feel a little disappointed that not more people weighed in against the ridiculous notion that our island is not defensible.
Having dutifully served NS and ICTs over the years, and having held some positions of responsibility in that time, I have no doubt that there is no country in the region that can mount a successful invasion of Singapore, and it is down to the professionalism and strength of our armed forces, not the presence of foreigners. If you are not familiar, here is a good book to read.
http://www.questia.com/library/98854885/defending-the-lion-city-the-armed-forces-of-singapore
Anyone familiar with our history, will realize that our present state of economic development, international standing, and indeed, independence, owes a whole lot to the strength of the SAF.
To have an uninformed individual come in and make the preposterous statement that we owe our peace to the presence of foreigners, on Feb 15th no less, is singularly OFFENSIVE!
No one who knows or values our soldiers, our independence, should grant this notion any quarter whatsoever. Rather than standing on the sidelines and chomping popcorn, it'd be nice if there were more than a few would speak up here to disabuse the uninformed of such an egregious notion, forcefully.
I am not good in writing in English, nonetheless, I am nodding away with each word of yours :celebrate: I am sure many here whom read in silence feel the same.
Cheers!
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