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- Dec 30, 2010
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The Singapore System is broken. The recent taxi fare hikes show just how broken the system is.
By themselves, price increases are part and parcel of a normal modern economy. But that is provided they are driven by genuine demand in a free market system where competition is not only permitted but actively encouraged. Price increases should be accompanied by rising wages. They should also not be the product of excessive liquidity, monopolistic business practices, excessive government intervention, protectionism, and other anti-competitive behaviour.
The recent taxi fare hikes are not an example of free market competition and healthy economic development. They are instead an example of anti-competitive behaviour that will end up hurting both consumers as well as taxi drivers. The only entities that will benefit are the taxi companies. That is the crux of the Singapore System — it is a system designed so that the owners of assets and the lenders of capital are free to enslave the mortgagees of assets and the borrowers of capital, with the full acquiescence and permission of the ruling PAP government.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=724
By themselves, price increases are part and parcel of a normal modern economy. But that is provided they are driven by genuine demand in a free market system where competition is not only permitted but actively encouraged. Price increases should be accompanied by rising wages. They should also not be the product of excessive liquidity, monopolistic business practices, excessive government intervention, protectionism, and other anti-competitive behaviour.
The recent taxi fare hikes are not an example of free market competition and healthy economic development. They are instead an example of anti-competitive behaviour that will end up hurting both consumers as well as taxi drivers. The only entities that will benefit are the taxi companies. That is the crux of the Singapore System — it is a system designed so that the owners of assets and the lenders of capital are free to enslave the mortgagees of assets and the borrowers of capital, with the full acquiescence and permission of the ruling PAP government.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=724