There is a right way and a wrong way of making more money. Unfortunately PM LHL and his Jinxed wife seemed to have little business sense of doing it the right way; principally blinded by short sighted greed for instant gratification.
For example, selling a product cheaper thereby generating greater volume of sales yields larger profits than trying to rip off customers with over-priced goods for short term gains and getting a bad reputation.
High rentals may result in short term gains with high profits for the GLC/GIC landlord but in the end widespread closures of retail outlets and vacating anchor tenants eventually kill the golden goose that won't lay golden eggs anymore resulting in ghost-town shopping malls with a few stragglers left trying to survive with a greatly reduced foot traffic (shoppers generally shun a shopping mall with several boarded up shops)
U know what the main problem is?the main problem i think is we have a government who thinks they know everything and know how to run everything and can control everything,we have a communist state run economy where the government is trying to figure out how to run every aspect of the economy,which results in alot of wastage and incompetence because its impossible for the government to figure out everything and the best solutions for everything and excel at everything at once.most government workers are dumb as a rock as it is.
and also because the government is essentially a group of civil servants and administrators,they are heavily dependant on textbook solutions and rigidity and formality and protocols and systems that have been slowly formed over the decades and as the result find it very hard to innovate and think out of the box and evolve quickly with the competition and the outside business environment which is highly competitive and evolves at a very rapid rate in order for businesses to survive and stay ahead of the curve and stay alive in today's world.......
as a result economies such as singapore's which are controlled by the state remain stale and archaic and inefficient.which is why Singapore economy despite over the years and decades,is unable to evolve and remain in the low and medium value added industries.we are unable to move up to high value chains like south korea and dominate the high tech industries.PAP keep insisting on repeating and rehashing old worn out economic policies like low cost manufacturing and pumping billions and billions into construction,and importing millions of cheaper better faster to drive up domestic consumption and demand.this is highly inefficient and unproductive.
the only solution is to free up the economy,open the market to the masses.let singaporeans take over the economy, create new businesses,compete with each other,innovate,come up with new solutions and ideas,create new products,create new industries,new markets and generate new growth.3.5 million people can come up with better solutions than 100 ministers and glc ceos.that is the only way we can survive into the future.instead of just asking sinkies to study hard and join the workforce,join a mnc or civil service.......give them control of the economy and their own fate.