- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
There is nothing wrong for someone to look at his Central Provident Fund (CPF) statement and feel he is rich. It only sounds a bit out of place when it is made during a time of great income disparity and where workers, without the protection of a minimum wage policy, are facing both wage depression as well as a rising cost of living.
There is nothing wrong for anyone to be happy with an $8 heart bypass when he has the money to buy insurance to pay for such expensive medical procedures. However in the face of rising healthcare costs and increasing poverty amongst the elderly, the retirees and the unemployed, such a public joy can come off as being insensitive. How many people are going to afford the hefty insurance premiums to cover themselves in order to get an $8 heart bypass surgery? Even under the Singapore Democratic Party’s generous Healthcare Plan, you would need to pay at least $1000 to $2000 for the operation.
Is there nothing wrong in saying that a person earning $1000 a month can afford to buy a house in Singapore? In the face of the astronomical prices of property in this country, and with many families struggling to make ends meet in this expensive city, such a statement appears more like a hyperbole.
Low income, high property prices and expensive healthcare are the three most important problems facing ordinary Singaporeans. If they are not recognized as problems, then it is unlikely that solutions will be found for them.
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/04/understanding-the-peoples-problems/
There is nothing wrong for anyone to be happy with an $8 heart bypass when he has the money to buy insurance to pay for such expensive medical procedures. However in the face of rising healthcare costs and increasing poverty amongst the elderly, the retirees and the unemployed, such a public joy can come off as being insensitive. How many people are going to afford the hefty insurance premiums to cover themselves in order to get an $8 heart bypass surgery? Even under the Singapore Democratic Party’s generous Healthcare Plan, you would need to pay at least $1000 to $2000 for the operation.
Is there nothing wrong in saying that a person earning $1000 a month can afford to buy a house in Singapore? In the face of the astronomical prices of property in this country, and with many families struggling to make ends meet in this expensive city, such a statement appears more like a hyperbole.
Low income, high property prices and expensive healthcare are the three most important problems facing ordinary Singaporeans. If they are not recognized as problems, then it is unlikely that solutions will be found for them.
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/04/understanding-the-peoples-problems/
