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MM Lee recently said that having a social divide is inevitable in a globalised world. I beg to differ. It is inevitable not because we live in a globalised world, but because the economic policies of this country favour the rich over the poor. Just consider the following: Foreign workers depress wages for the low income groups but helps cut cost for the rich who own the businesses. Our education system is designed to divide students at an early age into three separate classes, one to rule the country, one to run the economy, and the other to be run and ruled by the economy. GST hikes from 3% to 5% to 7% raise the cost of living with the hardest hit being the low income groups. As for the rich, they enjoy one of the lowest corporate and income tax rates in the world. Blistering economic growth and a government policy of attracting wealthy expatriates have created a new class of super-rich, while a string of price increases for everything from bread to bus fares have made life harder for the poor. (Reuters) To quote Bob Herbert, a columnist on The NY Times,
And here's another nice analogy by one of the readers, Trickle down implies that money flows like water. It doesn't. It rises like the bubbles in your beer. Inject it at the bottom, it rises steadily to the top, and may do some good on the way. Inject it at the top, and it just stays there. Indeed, the next time you drink beer, think of the income inequality that persists in Singapore. Now for to sum it all up with a cartoon. (Credits: Nicholson Cartoons)
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Excellent analysis. And this can be extrapolated to any other democratic country. I like this part : "Our education system is designed to divide students at an early age into three separate classes, one to rule the country, one to run the economy, and the other to be run and ruled by the economy." I think the rich pay taxes too but,they don't care about them. They will still be rich even after paying the taxes. Not the same case with poor and middle class.
Hi Sriram, thanks for commenting. Yeah but of course the point of taxes is not as much to make the rich poorer as it is to provide the government with funds to aid the poor. Unfortunately business interests continue to dominate government mindsets.
There are really only TWO classes of people - those who push and those pushed. A hot clash is inevitable, only a matter of time for it is not in the general nature of man to understand what another is going through. Empathy, sympathy, charity, altruism, magnanimity etc, this are mere words for what really motivates action is nothing more and nothing else than self-interest. The haves will continue to rationalize, to subvert, to undermine, to deny the demands of/from the have-nots for as long as they can. Little foresight except perhaps when they find themselves in the cross-hair of a galloping rebellion. Same with govts. The rise and fall of empires and dynasties are a regular and cyclical aspect of human societies. It is easy for the ruling party to go with the rich in society since they rub shoulders so often. Their much vaunted 'helicopter' vision, takes them so far up that they fail to see the details. See how beautiful MOTHER EARTH is from outerspace. Can you see genocide, poverty, the effects of natural calamities, exploitation from up there? No. Back on terra firma, the laws of the jungle prevails. It is one which mother nature ordained whether it be in its own ecological jungle or the man made concrete variety. It's the law that have been hard burned into our psyche, our firmware put into us by the super being. ----------------------
Hey George. That's a really bleak view there. But I guess you're right that most people have a tendency to be selfish, though I disagree that everyone is selfish all the time. Nonetheless I suppose that's why democracy is the best form governance. |
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