Besides being hands on at volunteerism work proper, many of us also feel we ought to raise awareness of the impoverished conditions of many S'poreans that do not benefit at all from the GDP growth numbers. We hope to do so with various platforms one of which is this forum you host. Hopefully more will know of their plight and somehow do their bit since the Govt is not doing theirs.
You're likely to retort what I've said, but it doesn't really matter, not for this post as I've said. I believe that there are enough forummers here who will better appreciate the real situation of many S'poreans who are already born disadvantaged or fallen or bad times, and yet all the Govt does is to bring in the YOGs the F1s etc of which the ulitmate aim is to enrich their government linked companies since it is they that provide all related business services for such events.
Your cause is noble. I once thought like you. However, having experienced a variety of political systems first hand and seen the welfare state model functioning up close, I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't work. No matter how much money you throw at the underprivileged, there will always be a class of people who invariably make personal choices that keep them in the poor house.
I have personally sponsored a family in South Auckland to help them through tough times. They were $8000 in debt and couldn't pay their bills and had their electricity cut off. I cleared their debt for them and helped them plan a budget to avoid going backwards again.
Two years later, they were $20,000 in debt. This time I told them to go to hell.
Financial support from me did help short term by easing the symptoms (the $8000 debt). However, it did not cure the underlying disease which was the fact that couldn't stop blowing their money on things they could not afford. Their brains simply weren't wired to live within their means. I could have given them $3000 a month and they'd still be in debt.
Many of the so called poor and destitute will have a similar story to tell. One of my ex staff in Singapore is pretty much penniless. We still keep in touch. He's hit rock bottom. However, in 1994, his walk up apartment went en-bloc and he had 1.5 million dollars in the bank. What happened to all the money? He spent it all. If the govt gave him another 1.5 million tomorrow, he'd end up broke again in 5 years because that's the way he is.
Life will never be fair and society will never be equal. There are those who can take $20,000 and turn it into $2 million through courage and hard work and there will be those who have $2 million fall into their laps and they'll end up broke. We're all different.
Ideals are good but they have to tempered with a dose of pragmatism and a grasp of reality.
