Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Help the low income people

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Help the low income people

Dear Mr. Tan,
I see many poor people in Singapore. In your opinion, what is the best way to help them? In some countries, certain essential goods are subsidised, but they tend to be abused. Is there a better way to give the help, and prevent abuse?

REPLY
Here are some ways to help the low income people:
1. Pay them an adequate wage
2. Encourage them to save, and help them to get a higher return
3. Help them to avoid debts and paying high interest
4. Keep down the cost of essential goods (but not through a subsidy)
5. Help them to get access to eduation and health care, paid through taxation

5 comments:

David said...: Poor people in Singapore, even if they are unhappy, certainly does not have an impact on votes in many past elections. So why should things be different in future? Maybe because of gahmen "help", they are "satisfied" and not that "unhappy". So the "unhappy" is only a minority. So status quo "help" remain.
Or what other factors? GRC system which dilutes the votes of the poor? If so, it is another brilliant strategy of PAP. Seriously no one could have done better than PAP on such things. That's why they are what they are.; August 09, 2008 10:08 AM
sail.marina.bay said...: hi mr tan
i find your post very interesting and worthy of futher discussions. however, the blog format makes it difficult to discuss issues in depth.

would you be considering a forum page ? otherwise, are there forums where we can take the discussion to the next level ?; August 09, 2008 11:43 AM
zhummmeng said...: Tell this to the insurance agents.
Poor people are often the victims of insurance agents. The poor are usually naive , gullible, ignorant and lowly educated and they become easy preys of insurance agents.Instead of helping them with right insurance plans the agents dumped them with burdensome whole life and endowment.Eg. Can $10K sum assured WL do much for these folks if something happens? Imagine the money paid for this type of plans can get the poor folks a decent few hundred thousand coverage if something happens but the greedy agents don't recommend because they get little or no commission.
So talking about helping the poor folks never ask insurance agents for help.They have no compunction and no conscience even to steal from people who have little let alone helping them with their finances.
EG, I have known of poor people who were made to invest their CPFSA into the NTUC single premium endowment Growth .These poor were ignorant that they could get no more than leaving in CPF and also that they were putting their money to risk. Instead of helping them to grow more their hard earned money the unscupulous agents conned them that they would get insurance coverage which CPF didn't give. This is despicable and it came from "decent looking agents". Never judge by the cover. These agents now masquerade as "consultants" are actually wolves and vixens in sheep's clothings.; August 09, 2008 12:09 PM
Falcon said...: Yes, don't just leave them to the financial institutions. The banks pay you one cent for your deposits in interest and charge you 200 cents for banking with them. This is 200 times what they make from you from what they pay you in interest for the average person.; August 09, 2008 1:20 PM
ym said...: increase income tax of the super-rich (ie those making >1mil a year taxed @ 50%) and reduce consumption tax (ie gst, erp)..

the rich gets richer due to MAS credit-induced booms.. it is fair that they are taxed significantly more..; August 10, 2008 10:23 AM