Well.
This is a pretty interesting observation about myself -When I was reading the budget after it was mailed to me, I figured that I am actually consciously looking for things that will benefit me. Sadly, other than the $400m to the NRF and the extra 20% tax credit there is nothing else that has any relevance to me (I do not receive GST credits).
The budget is no longer something that is only of intellectual interest. It is something of practical interest - I am expecting it to impact my life.
As usual, it is hard to pick problems out of Singapore's budget, and it is as usual, unique. When Taiwan is handing out vouchures directly for people to go shopping, when the US is talking about reducing the tax burden of the middle class, Singapore gives money to employers who keep their Singaporean workers, gives a bit of money to the people directly, helps banks share some of their risks, and returns more taxes to people who lost jobs and started losing money in their businesses - something HKG is still rather unwilling to do.
I don't know what the mentality is - I tend to think that, Singapore knows what is not going to work, but Singapore might not know exactly what is going to work. We know that Taiwan's measure is not going to help the economy in the long run, we know that we need a population armed with consuming power - and here Singapore comes out with something and tries, and then other countries follow suit when it works. The IRs, F1, Youth Olympics, biomedical sciences, Newater - they are all results of the same thing.
Whether these things work out - it is all a game. We make our best guess, place our bets, and the rest are all God's. It is the same thing for investments - general public comments are always bashing GIC and Temasek for their bad investment decisions - but well Singapore has to do something to the savings that we have to prevent them from depreciating, and once you go into investments there are definitely risks, and this round not even the best economists envisioned the severity of the crisis. The main problem with them is, they are managing public funds, yet they are not transparent and are not publicly accountable (i.e. no one knows what is happening, and no one can ask or touch them). That is the ridiculous part, not the bad investment decisions.
(Isn't our life like that too - how do you know something will definitely work out for you? Sometimes, other than trusting God what else can you do?)
Back to my initial point - I find that this is a very middle-class thing. To look for little incentives that you can get here and there to supplement your income is a very middle-class thing.
I have been making interesting observations - about how some of us are working hard for career advancement, trying to earn some money all the time, make noise when chicken becomes $1.19/lb (used to be $0.99/lb - this has to be me LOL) - while some others not only do not have to do that - okay, even things they complain about are hmms different.
Haha if you value hard work, do not want to be a burden to your parents (i.e. don't want to ask them for money (extra money - in case of non-scholars) unless you are almost dying), shows an active interest in seeking out free stuff and incentives and money that will help, read the budget first for yourself specifically then more generally, and wonder when you eventually get married whether you can qualify for subsidised HDB - you are quite typically my kind.
That day we were talking about how can we integrate worship, work, service, the arts, and ministry into one thing in our lives (apparently the Hebrew word for all 5 items is the same). It seems to me that in my life - there is probably some overlap but not entirely so. It is certainly possible to do all 5 as one - I can imagine how that would be like, but it seems obvious to me that, considering the stuff that I just discussed, I am definitely not there yet :P
Labels: Life, Policy and Politics
