“Feeding 8 kids on $300 a week: How big families cope in a time of rising costs” (ST, Apr 10)
“The Sunday Times finds out how three families manage their bigger broods amid the rising cost of living.
He vetoes a $4.75 bag of Ruffles chips that daughter Lael, who will be 13 this year, presents. “Is this on offer? It’s expensive, you know.”
She dutifully replaces it with a less pricey brand.
If the children make it to university, “they will do what daddy and mummy did”, says Mr See. He and his wife worked part-time, gave tuition and borrowed to finance their higher education.
But he admits they “pray a lot more that money will come”.”
Comment:
Practically every other day, there are media reports or a member of government talking about rising prices
Arguably, the media, and to the best of my knowledge – no one has suggested a comprehensive proposal, to address rising prices
Well, for starters – let me say that often, one does not need to re-invent the wheel when faced with a problem
Perhaps, we may just simply have to look at what others are doing
So, here are some suggestions:
1) Reduce the increased fuel duties, on a temporary basis – are there any countries in the world that increased fuel duties in the midst of the pandemic last year?
2) Instead of just bringing forward, with earlier payouts of the various support schemes – what the people need is more help, not just earlier payouts – in Hong Kong – the Government announced on 22 Feb 2022 (in addition to the scores of Covid assistance schemes)- “In light of the successful launch of the Consumption Voucher Scheme last year, the Financial Secretary announced a second round of the scheme, under which electronic consumption vouchers with a total value of $10,000 (S$1,739) will be disbursed by instalment to each eligible Hong Kong permanent resident and new arrival aged 18 or above through suitable stored value facilities.”
https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/…/anti-epidemic-fund…
3) On 3 Feb, the UK Government announced “Millions to receive £350 boost to help with rising energy costs”
https://www.gov.uk/…/millions-to-receive-350-boost-to…
4) Defer the announced GST increase – What’s the point of forming a Committee against profiteering, when many businesses may have already increased prices, perhaps arguably, in anticipation of the impending GST increase?
In this connection, Singapore’s Reserves are estimated to be $1.97 trillion – we have the highest reserves per capita in the world, have the largest Budget surpluses in the last 2 decades or so (pre-Covid) in the world, are consistently in the top five for per capita income in the world, the 2nd most expensive city in the world (The Economist, 2021) – and yet we have no minimum wage, one of the greatest inequality amongst developed countries (gini coefficient before government transfers), one of the biggest wage gap between the top and bottom percentiles among developed countries , the lowest social welfare spending among developed countries, most expensive public housing in the world (price to income ratio), highest national pension contribution rates in the world (typically up to 37 per cent of income), one of the most expensive electricity, water, public transport, public universities’ tuition fees, etc, in the world
https://www.facebook.com/laoliang/posts/7509794795705033