PAP to raise taxes on those living in 5 Room/Pte

[aurvandil]

Previoulsy PAP had taken the position that the income gap was inevitable and that it was "ok" as long GDP was increasing.

Recently however, that has been a 180 degree turn. The PAP has been falling over itself over the income gap and the possible consequences this will have on the upcoming elections. MM lee summed it up best in a recent quote

One potential source of trouble for the PAP that Mr Lee singled out is the growing wage gap, which could spark class interests. ‘There could come a time when the interest of the upper middle class will be divergent, that they don’t think they should subsidise the lower classes. They may well support a party which says, ‘No, I don’t think this taxation is right. Why should I support the people in the two-room and three-room and four-room flats?’ We will widen the divide in our society. I don’t know when, but it will come.

This seems to suggest that the upcoming budget will be "pro-poor". To pay for the goodies, the PAP will be rasing taxes and fees from those in the upper middle income and above. Roughly translated, this means those living in 5 room HDB flats or private property. Traditionally this group has been the PAP's strongest supporters as they got most of the fruits of PAP's policies. Since they are such strong supporters, the PAP must figure that robbing from these loyalists to buy off the "anti-PAP" poor will pay off during the elections. The trick here of course is to win more votes than you lose. MM candidly described this as being just politics.

Instead, the PAP redistributes enough to secure the support of more than half the electorate, but not so much that the country loses its competitive drive. ‘So you say to me, the chaps at the bottom will become anti-government. Do we change because of that or do we say, ‘Right, we are likely going to lose that number of votes each time and so we’ve got to win from the median upwards’? I mean, that’s politics.

Thinking how these rich PAP "loyalists" are going to be chopped this coming budget puts a smile on my face.