Bus driver from PRC

I spoke to a bus driver from PRC. He has been working in Singapore for 8 years. His family stays in China.

Why can't we pay better wages to bus drivers so that the job can be taken up by locals and is sufficient for them to raise a family here?

By keeping wages low, we may be reducing bus fares, but why is our cost of living still among the highest in the world?

If we want to employ bus drivers from other countries, can we make it possible for them to bring their families to Singapore after working here for three years?

Can we give a better life to all the workers, locals and foreigners?

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1335

Vote on these issues in the Wisdom of the Crowd

https://wisdomofthecrowd.sg/active_issue.aspx

WOTC - Allow CPf savings to be taken out at 55

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Will many CPF members lose their savings if allowed to be taken out at 55?

Here are the responses: (42 Votes)

69 % - Offer the members attractive schemes to keep with CPF voluntarily.
14 % - Make financial advice available to them for a modest fee.
10 % - Create approved schemes for them to invest outside CPF.
7 % - The savings are likely to disappear soon.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1268

WOTC - Depleting value of HDB flat

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

How can we solve the HDB problem of depleting value?

Here are the responses: (45 Votes)

62 % - Adopt SDP approach of non-open market flat to reduce the price of HDB flat.
24 % - Allow expiring lease to be renewed for 5 or 10 years at a modest premium.
11 % - Make rental flats available at modest cost
2 % - Adopt LHL approach of VERS (voluntary enbloc redevelopment scheme)

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1267

WOTC - Which political party do you support

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Which political party do you support?

Here are the responses: (42 Votes)

50 % - Progress Singapore Party (under Tan Cheng Bock)
31 % - Singapore Democratic Party
12 % - Workers Party
7 % - People Action Party
0 % - Another party

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1266

WOTC - Prime minister of Singapore

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Who do you prefer as the next prime minister of Singapore

Here are the responses: (44 Votes)

41 % - Dr. Tan Cheng Bock
32 % - Tharman Shanmugaratnam
18 % - Chee Soon Juan
9 % - Heng Swee Keat
0 % - Pritam Singh

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1265

Has Open Electricity Market led to unnecessary cost and confusion?

Straits Times Forum Page, 8 April 2019

With the new Open Electricity Market, retail customers now have the option of choosing their electricity supplier and enjoying a lower price. This is supposed to be good news for consumers.

However, many remain confused. They do not know which supplier to buy from and find it difficult to decide on whether to accept a plan that offers a discount from the Singapore Power price or to go for a fixed rate for a specified period of, say, 12 months.

They are consumers, and not speculators. Why give them this difficult decision?

Often, in the shopping malls, I have seen teams of young people marketing the electricity plans offered by the different providers. Based on rough estimates, there could be several hundred people involved in this marketing exercise.

After a consumer decides on a new provider, the supplier also has to do some work to register the provider, set up the billing and invoicing system and arrange for a meter reading, among others.

Does all of this work help to improve productivity or reduce the cost of the electricity that is produced? It seems that the answer is no. Instead, they just add to the administrative, marketing and customer service costs, which must result in a higher overall cost.

So, what is the alternative?

It is quite clear that the wholesale electricity price has dropped due to overcapacity and overproduction.

It should be quite easy for the Government to get Singapore Power to reduce the retail electricity price to match the average wholesale electricity price.

This will avoid the wasteful exercise, which has added a lot of unnecessary cost and confusion.

This is also not a one-time cost, as, when the contract expires, the consumer and supplier will have to go through the whole trouble of negotiating and renewing the contract once again.

Tan Kin Lian

Express support for proposals for change

Many people are not happy with the current policies of the PAP government. What is the alternative?

Some people have done their research and presented their proposals for a change in policy in clear terms.

It is somewhat sad that there do not get much support for their proposals or acknowledgement for their work from the people who are fed up with the PAP policies and like to see change to these policies. Why is this so?

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1331

Price of water quoted by Hyflux

What was the price that Hyflux bid to get Tuaspring?

According to this report, Hyflux bidded $0.35 per cu meter.

https://www.globalwaterintel.com/news/2018/21/how-hyflux-was-brought-down-by-its-ambition

However, I have seen in other post, the price of $0.45 being quoted.

Which is correct?

I have written to the author of Global Water Intelligence and now wait for his reply.

It is rather sad that such an important piece of information, the whole essence of a project that can doom Hyflux, is being kept secret.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1330

Laws should be enforced

Simon Lim is unhappy that many laws are passed but are not enforced.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1329

Remove unproductive and wasteful practices

There are many government practices that add to the cost of doing business. Eventually, these costs will be reflected in the prices that are paid by consumers. They increase the cost of living. Singapore already has the highest cost of living in the world for several years.

A large part of the high cost of living is the cost of property. I will not deal with this matter here. I will deal with it separately.

I will deal with the government practices that I consider to be unproductive and wasteful.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1325

WOTC - Should PUB award the tender to Hyflux?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

What should PUB deal with the under-priced tender from Hyflux for Tuaspring?

Here are the responses: (33 Votes)

42 % - Allow Hyflux to withdraw from the tender by paying a modest withdrawal penalty.
30 % - Allow Hyflux to adjust the price to 5% below the second highest tender.
21 % - Award the tender, as it offered the lowest price for water, i.e. $0.35 compared to $0.52 (next highest tender) and $1.00 (other tenderers).
6 % - Award the tender and let Hyflux face the consequence.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1264

WOTC - Should PUB pay more than $0 for Tuaspring?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Should PUB pay more than $0 for Tuaspring?

Here are the responses: (46 Votes)

50 % - The govt should ask PUB to pay a fair value as it was the EMA that caused a big loss to Hyflux.
30 % - The value for Tuaspring should be decided by the court after considering all the issues involved.
17 % - The govt should ask PUB to allow Hyflux to get a better value from the international market.
2 % - PUB pay $0 for Tuaspring as it is the correct value.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1263

Foolish to impose GST burden

In this post, I explain why it is foolish for the govt to impose a heavy GST burden on the people. There are better ways to collect revenue, but they already have more than sufficient revenue.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=391

GST is a bad tax

People who does not analyze the situation deeply argue that the government needs revenue (which I agree) and that GST is a good source of this revenue (which I disagree).

Here are my reasons why GST is not needed in Singapore, and it is a bad tax, as it hurts the low income people and is costly to administer.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1157

The future of blockchain

Two years ago, my friend was enthusiastic about blockchain. He explained the concept to me. He attended a course on blockchain and was excited about it.

MAS was also excited about the potential of blockchain.

My friend gave me some technical references. I did not like it. I found it to be an expensive and inefficient way to achieve "independence from a third party".

I did not like the concept that the database has to be duplicated into many "nodes" and that a lot of computer processing power had to be spent on arguing which version is the correct one.

His reply was computer power is cheap. I did not agree.

I met my friend recently and asked for an update about blockchain.

He told me that a new version of blockchain had been developed to address the inefficiency of the earlier version.

My common sense seemed to be correct.

One day, blockchain will be successful. But it will not be the inefficient model that most people were excited about, and after billion of dollars have been poured into a concept that obviously would not work.

I wonder if it is all a scam. But our government would probably have poured in several tens or hundreds of millions to support the work that would eventually be found to be useless.

Like the concern over Y2K.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1324

The CLOB saga and the Hyflux saga

Many people remembered the CLOB saga that occured 20 years ago. They remain bitter until today.

How big was the CLOB losses, compared to the Hyflux losses today?

This post contain a comparison.
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1323

Remove unproductive and wasteful work

An operator of a child care center told me that his staff has to spend quite a lot of time to check eligibility for grant. They have to chase parents for documents to prove their income level and other matters.

This is an example of wasteful unproductive work.

It is better to offer the same grant to all citizens, regardless of income level and type of housing. If the govt is short of funds, just increase the income tax. 

I see this type of wasteful work in many parts of our system. For example, medical treatment also has different types of grants.

It is one reason why Singapore has a high cost of doing business.

This high cost has eventually to be paid by the consumers. It increases our cost of living.

I wish to see all of these unproductive work being removed. We should be spending time to do useful work, rather than unproductive and wasteful work.

There are too many of this kind of wasteful work for me to name. It is "all over the place".

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1322

WOTC - Health care system

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Do we have a world class health care system?

Here are the responses: (48 Votes)

71 % - Our health care cost is too high.
23 % - I prefer a system that is not expensive, no need to have very high quality.
6 % - We have a health care system of high standard.
0 % - KBW says so, he must be right.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1262

WOTC - US China Trade dispute

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Will the US China trade dispute be settled?

Here are the responses: (42 Votes)

40 % - It will be settled but dispute will arise within a short time.
33 % - There will be further delay.
19 % - There will not be a settlement.
7 % - It will be settled soon.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1260