Singlish, Once Again…
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Here’s a post which appeared as an opinion piece on the Catholic News. It
was, however, so full of bombast that I had to reply to what seemed an
article wh...
Minimum Wage: Another Perspective
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For several months now, there is a debate on the issue of minimum wage on
the local blogosphere. While many advanced economies has minimum wage as a
bedroc...
Writing about the housing situation in Singapore is like my temporary new addiction. I hate it, but I keep coming back to it. Why? Because there are many men-in-white whose lives are very sad and boring and hence so very often partake in the cruel sadistic sport of telling Singaporeans through their blogs..oops i meant newspapers...that signing up a 30yrs mortgage that takes up about 30% of your monthly combined income is entirely affordable.
Yet another bunch of new built-to-order flats have been released. A 85 square meter unit now comes served piping hot as a...(drumroll)... 4 room flat!...(drum roll builds up again..) at $440,000 on average!! If you are unable to associate 83 sq meter with real size, let's just say 83 sq meter used to be the size of 3 room flats. Yes yes, this unit is in Queenstown, i hear you, you YPAP kids (I say it in a disgusted tone). So how bout let's go live in Sembawang then...which is fine I guess, at $250,000 for a similar "4-room flat", if you don't feel a little ripped off not getting a discount for living so far away.
The next election is looking like housing costs will play a key role in swaying the votes. PAP must have decided a larger portion of the electorate will vote for them based on 1) fear that opposition politicians destroy their "asset wealth" and 2) hopes that their newly purchased properties will continue to rip through the roofs.
A fellow blogger has already written about the illusionary effect of wealth created by PAP regarding our rising housing costs. [Read here]
I think that despite good reasoning from pockets of Singaporeans on why the continued rising cost of housing is not good for us citizens, I am relying on logic that the men-in-white must have good statistics to lead them to believe that a perceived continued rise in property prices will be winning them more votes. (else they won't be playing the game this way by now)
Hence, I believe that a particular Bernard Leong is correct to tell fellow citizen blogger Alex Tan, "if you are so disenchanted, why not leave Singapore?". [read here]
PAP will win another election handsdown despite all the pockets of discontentment because too many years of the rat-race environment has altered the DNA of the majority of our fellow citizens. They are just like ratatouille's brother in the following clip...happy to just eat garbage.
"...it won't be so hard if you weren't so picky!" father rat's voice over (sounds terribly familiar eh?)
"If you can muscle your way through the gag-reflex...all kinds of possibilities open up." Brother rat
Hi Anon, Aaron is neither saying public housing cannot be cheap nor is he a PAP arse kisser. Maybe he expressed himself a little too vague this time round, but I think what he meant to say was that, the public housing cost is not going to be coming down anytime soon due to the political factors involved.
Nothing.. vague. It is apparent from his writing that the HDB flates are not cheap. He is waxing satricial over it.
".. many men-in-white whose lives are very sad and boring and hence so very often partake in the cruel sadistic sport of telling Singaporeans through their blogs..oops i meant newspapers...that signing up a 30yrs mortgage that takes up about 30% of your monthly combined income is entirely affordable."
- which he is pointing out to the fact that it is not affordable.
"Yet another bunch of new built-to-order flats have been released. A 85 square meter unit now comes served piping hot as a...(drumroll)... 4 room flat!...(drum roll builds up again..) at $440,000 on average!! If you are unable to associate 83 sq meter with real size, let's just say 83 sq meter used to be the size of 3 room flats."
Not only is this unaffordable, the MIW has not only upped the price, they have reduced the size.
"Hence, I believe that a particular Bernard Leong is correct to tell fellow citizen blogger Alex Tan, "if you are so disenchanted, why not leave Singapore?"."
This belief I however do not concur, as another blogger has wrote - Who in the world is Bernard to tell Alex to leave Singapore if he is disenchanted. Singaporeans should not behave like cowards that the YPAPs & their elders are, and leave when the going get tough or if they are not paid millions in salaries?
Stay, like Alex and give them his best shot. If all fails, and like he says, most Singaporeans are still comfortable to have the PAP as a majority after all this "garbage", then perhaps the time is not right, and move on. But NOT leave just like that.
"PAP will win another election handsdown despite all the pockets of discontentment because too many years of the rat-race environment has altered the DNA of the majority of our fellow citizens. They are just like ratatouille's brother in the following clip...happy to just eat garbage."
Well, let's see if your prediction will come true. Perhaps but one never knows. Even the PAP now wants to have a "cooling off" day? Why? Aren't they so confident to wins handsdown?
LuckyBama is waxing satricial over it. Aaron is a PAP mouth piece.
He is recycling the old "PAP's hands are tied" rubbish and framing it as simply a pricing issue. While is MOSTLY not.
In no particular order: This is a supply-demand issue. This is a cash flow issue. This is a abuse of public housing by PRs issue.
-PRs should not be allowed to purchase PUBLIC housing. Certainly not sublet\rent out.
-CPF contribution should be cut and cash increased so that renting is a viable solution. Folks who cannot afford to buy should NOT buy.
-HDB flats are too low/short. Look at HK. If u want 6M population, then you build HIGH QUALITY 50-60 storey apartments. Most/All of them. Build them in suburban places like Sembawang , Woodlands. Allow and subsidize "multi-generational" applications so that new applicants can live near parents. Have critical mass and facilities (transport, etc) will follow.
And these are just ordinary solutions off the top of my head. LuckyBama can easily do better.
No. PAP do what they want and they still win 'cos they had successfully dumb-down the unthinking population.
"cooling off" day? Maybe they knew they would lose the TV rights for World Cup. Now that would cause a voter backlash. *only half joking*
Fievel - I think it is more like a conscious effort on the part of many Singaporeans to pretend that garbage is cheese. Makes people feel better about their situation ... for a while ...
It's not really a conscious effort I don't think. It's more like a herd mentality...coupled with the lack of an alternative choice. I mean, we are talking about public housing here, the lowest rung in all housing alternatives!
Anyway, I hope you have found wadever you were looking to do over in the States. Merry X'mas!
Aaron (PAP arse kisser) says public housing cannot be cheap and you agree with him?!
Ok ...