Pipe Dreams Of The Foreign Kind

http://todayinsingapore.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/pipe-dreams-of-the-foreign-kind/
When a foreigner like Eric J Brooks (ST Fri 31 July, Page 22) writes a saccharine ode to sing the praises of the guys in charge, you know somebody’s head is not screwed on right. Especially when you read the part that says “no country takes care of its people the way Singapore does”.
Wait, it gets better. Eric says the economy is rebounding at 20 percent, and only Singapore, “with its deep pockets and years of good economic management, could pull it off.” Guess he hasn’t been appraised that one individual has wiped off $40 billion of the citizens’ monies, with absolutely no regrets at all. He is bitching about the rats in his hometown Toronto, but blessedly unaware of the infestation at our rojak eatery. Hey, Eric, the reason Canada, and other cities blessed with four seasons, don’t have too many covered public walkways is because they tend to collapse under the weight of the snow. In Singapore, the presence of the shelters is a reflection of the voting pattern in those favoured estates.

Want to know a dirty secret about the upgrading of housing development board (HDB) flats? The first thing the contractor does is to head for the toilets and rip out the sewage pipes, floor by floor, and replace them with PVC types. The iron piping installed in a building meant to last 99 years were rusting away ahead of its due date, thanks to design oversights that allow the pipes which are flush with the wet floor of the washing areas to be eroded. And who can forget Minister of Development Mah Bow Tan threatening to fine HDB owners who fail to change out the rivets in the window sills with aluminium ones. Who installed those rusty rivets in the first place? Oh, if a HDB dweller cannot pay his mortgage, he can seek a moratorium for payments from his community development council? If it were that simple, where do the newspapers get their stories about people moving out to the void decks, Changi beach shelters and underneath flyovers. Ah, the largesse of another MRT line, but don’t expect the SMRT to decrease fares due to economies of scale. If you listen carefully, you can hear Transport Minister Raymond Lim proposing a 13% GST to pay for the train rides.

Eric claims he stays in an upgraded 4-story HDB block “with a new staircase and a wheel chair lift that stops at every floor.” Hmm… he prefers to stay in a pigeon hole instead of the vast land spread of Canada. Singaporeans, look at the following mouth-watering numbers and weep.Average detached bungalow prices by City/Region(C$1=S$1.3):
* Canada: $238,000
* Toronto: $372,000
* Ottawa: $238,000
* Vancouver: $427,000
* Montreal: $208,000
* Calgary: $238,000

And thanks to writer Paul Chan, we get to really know how “no country takes care of its people the way Singapore does”:

The Canadian government provides and funds compulsory education for Ontario students from primary to secondary level, up to the age of 18. It spends 7 percent of its gross domestic product on education. Canadians enjoy these benefits, while we do not.

Ontario has two social assistance programmes for people in financial need: Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Programme. Under Ontario Works, a distressed family of four with children under 17 years old receives a basic needs allowance of up to C$446 (S$590) and a shelter allowance of C$660, making a total of C$1,106 a month. A distressed family in Singapore gets less than a quarter of this.

Under the Canadian National Health Insurance programme Medicare, citizens are fully covered with medical expenses prepaid, while Singaporeans must pay according to individual affordability with up to 80 percent subsidy for the needy.

Response 1 :
sgbloke Says: August 2, 2009 at 11:49 am Reply
It’s true what Paul Chan said about Canada’s social assistance programme. But the other side of the story is that social programmes like theirs are paid by individuals through income taxes. From the Canada Revenue Agency website, the minimum is 15% for the first C$40,726. In Singapore, for the same income bracket it’s 0% for the first SGD$40K and then 8.5% for next SGD$40K (see IRAS website). Then one has to consider the higher cost of living in Canada. An annual income of $40K is about $3K per month. Deduct the high taxes and higher living expenses and I dare say the amount of disposal income for a person living in Singapore is higher.
I’m not saying Singapore’s situation is better than Canada or vice versa. My point is writers like Paul Chan aren’t presenting the whole picture when they mention social assistance programmes and it’s not really comparing like for like. Can’t say Canada take better care of its citizens compared to Singapore because they have social assistance programmes like that. Some Canadians may feel it’s their social duty while some may feel they are being penalised for earning higher wages. Who is better taken care of is subjective. One has to experience both systems to know. From that angle, I’d say someone like Mr. Brooks may be more objective in their views than Mr. Chan.