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“Benefits” analogy?
Let me use an analogy to illustrate what some of these “benefits” may really mean.
You increase the price by $2, and then say you give a subsidy (benefit) of $1.
Perhaps what would constitute a real benefit would be to not increase the price at all.
You top-up an account with $1, but it can only be used (or most people may most likely only use it) in the future when the price has gone up to $2.
A benefit, here, can be understood as not topping-up the account, and keeping the price same in the future.
The real measure of taxes to benefits?
In the final analysis, perhaps the best measure of taxes vis-a-vis benefits to the people is the statistics as to:
1. How many people are finding it hard to make ends meet?
2. How many cannot pay for their HDB mortgages, medical bills, etc?
When a small country builds up reserves to the tune of an estimated over $500 billion, it may be a clear sign that perhaps its citizens have been over-taxed and “under-benefited”.
By the way, the net Budget surplus over the last seven years was a whopping $10.5 billion!
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/03/1-tax-4-25-benefits-really/
Let me use an analogy to illustrate what some of these “benefits” may really mean.
You increase the price by $2, and then say you give a subsidy (benefit) of $1.
Perhaps what would constitute a real benefit would be to not increase the price at all.
You top-up an account with $1, but it can only be used (or most people may most likely only use it) in the future when the price has gone up to $2.
A benefit, here, can be understood as not topping-up the account, and keeping the price same in the future.
The real measure of taxes to benefits?
In the final analysis, perhaps the best measure of taxes vis-a-vis benefits to the people is the statistics as to:
1. How many people are finding it hard to make ends meet?
2. How many cannot pay for their HDB mortgages, medical bills, etc?
When a small country builds up reserves to the tune of an estimated over $500 billion, it may be a clear sign that perhaps its citizens have been over-taxed and “under-benefited”.
By the way, the net Budget surplus over the last seven years was a whopping $10.5 billion!
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/03/1-tax-4-25-benefits-really/
