Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Life is more difficult

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Life is more difficult

I met a few relatives at a wedding reception.

One drives a bus. The insurance premium has increased sharply. He now has to drive longer hours and get his grown up son to take the third shift to make ends meet.

Another runs a mini-mart. He complains about the regulations on placing goods outside his shop and the summon that he received from the town council. After seeing his MP, he was issued with a courts summons.

Another runs a catering business. He is worried about the competitive environment, low margin and high operating cost.

All of them said that life is more difficult today, compared to the past. They face stress due to the high cost of living, rules and regulations and competition.

Tan Kin Lian

17 comments:

Doubtful said...: Kin Lian, could you do a survey on the CPF minimum scheme and give us the true picture. I don't trust the scholars making the decisions for us, and I think the gov is having problems paying us back our money. It seems they are kicking the can down the road to delay the day of reckoning. The gov may have over-spent over the years on infrastructure like new MRT lines & JTC's Jurong Island in order to stimulate growth. Are we over-building on this small island? Can it take this squeeze & over-crowding?; May 30, 2010 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Not only life is more difficult for adults, this is happening to the students and kids too. Students face more stress from the schools and peers to perform better and excel. Those who can't cope with the extra stress simply fall out from the society.; May 30, 2010 9:45 AM
C H Yak said...: I attended an AGM yesterday.

Earlier on I had asked the management committee when would the AGM be held and why no notice was given for the date of the annual AGM traditionally held on the last weekend of May; as it is a long weekend, before the AGM Agenda was sent out. I also asked why there were no notice to invite "motions" as there was bad quorum during the last 2 AGM. The staff replied me then and told me there was no bye-law requirements to give such notice.

It ended up with just one miserable motion raised at the AGM, but a proxy had sent in a vote to disagree on the motion. Since an unanimous decision was required, the motion was defeated. The Chairman commented that it was "stupid" to vote against the motion by proxy.

I disagreed with him. The proposal, which looked like a dummy proposal from the management committee to hide its inefficiency instead, was stupid. The first part was a good proposal to scrap some under-utilised facilities. The second part was to replace it with some new facilities. But there are already sufficient facilities of the new type already in the estate and are also under-utilised.

I commented to the Chairman that I would respect the 2 proxy voters instead. Because the 2nd part of the motion was not well presented and regressive and wasting money, although the first part of the motion was necessary in my own opinion.

But the committee was not pro-active to invite motions despite my email request and used the bye-laws as an excuse not to do so or to postpone it to next year's AGM.

By-laws should protect us; but they should never be used as an excuse for not being proactive and make life difficult with encumbrance or to hide inefficiency of our systems. It is also a waste of money and resources.
I have set a blog to give such focus...and hope to get more feedback.

http://de-leviathan.blogspot.com/

Email : deleviathan@gmail.com; May 30, 2010 10:45 AM
Life is beautiful, not sad said...: Runing your own business is never an easy task.Many think that it is very profitable.

Driving taxis, buses for your own profit is very tiresome and have its own dangers.. the costs are much to high and margins are very slim.Yet people go into it because they are their own boss and enjoy liberties that an employee will never have.
As such, the negative side must be accepted.

Same goes for provsion shops or minimarts in HDB heartlands.
I dislike shops hawking their wares along the pavements where it is meant for pedestrians. It is a marketing concept that was good 20 years ago but is now out of date.

One shop does it and the next door will follow and soon the shop's entire inventory is pushed out and the shop itself is a warehouse. It is a saftey issue and I am happy rules are enforced by the town councils.

Certain arrangements can be made for these shops to display their wares. Currently, they do this 365days a year and it numbs the potential buyer. The shopper does not notice anything new.
Shop owners or associations can co-ordinate a 2 week period where they can display their wares and then revert to within their shop space after that.

This simulates "summer" sales like in temperate climates when the season allows and encourages shops to display goods outdoors to attract customers.. it adds colour and festivity.

Go to any HDB town and you will see ridiculous extension of displays.. and they all look the same.

Life now can be competitive, but should we all appear sad and gloomy? Grasp the horns and take the challenge.. be creative!; May 30, 2010 11:47 AM
Anonymous said...: I driving a 1.5L Japanese car, it is coming to it 4 yrs old by this july. the insurance premium keep going up from day 1.
The value of the car is $20,000 less today as compared to 4 yrs ago, buy right i should be paying less premium today, however the premium today is about $900. $200 more expensive. is that mean that my car is more value than before?? Do we have a choice for lower living cost in Singapore?; May 30, 2010 11:48 AM
Anonymous said...: I agree with you totally that life and the cost of living in Singapore is getting out of hand.
There are so many "new" charges here and there and you will get lost paying and paying if you do not monitor...
On the other hand, I notice that the govtment is taking more and more (for themselves) conviniently and now more reasons as the economy is up & away, they surely and must take credit.
This land is really not Singaporeans' anymore...& the stress of life and of it all is driving the social problem more out of proportion, maybe someday, just someday, it will erupt to full scale...; May 30, 2010 11:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Go and open a bank. You are allowed to charge high fees and to collude with the other banks in levying these fees. The fee for a banking transfer is enough to pay one worker for one day.; May 30, 2010 12:59 PM
Not affected said...: Live within your means.

Live within your means.

If you cannot afford the premiums,petrol,taxes,parking, ERP
then very simple solution:
DO NOT OWN CAR.

If you cannot afford high speed internet, DO NOT SIGN up !!

If you cannot afford CNBC,BBC news on starhub cable vision.. DO NOT SIGN UP!!

If you cannot afford airticket to Hong Kong.. DO NOT BUY!!

What is wrong with not buying???
Life becomes miserable WHEN YOU DO THINGS THAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD!!
just like GREECE!!

Why must you buy coffee and drink it at the coffee shop when you can prepare one yourself at home???

Why must you drink coke or whatever with your meal??

Cost of living is expensive becasue we choose to pay for somethings which there are alternatives.

WE WILL NOT DIE IF WE DO NOT HAVE A CAR... I GUARANTEE IT !!

WE WILL NOT DIE IF WE DO NOT HAVE AIR-CON!!!... I GUARANTEE IT!!

Your children will not die if they do not have iphone or ipad.

We will also not die if PAP dissappear.. even with all our CPF.

What is the matter with us?; May 30, 2010 4:36 PM
Anonymous said...: The Truth is; it is going to be harder.

Is there any way out?

Can anything be done to change it?

Are our leaders interested to change it?

patriot; May 30, 2010 5:17 PM
Anonymous said...: One development is as sure as sunrise.

Living will be tougher for Singaporeans as time progresses. There will be less jobs, relentless rising costs of living. Sg will be more crowded, frictions will increase and saturations of land(space) and consumption will set in fast, spelling the death knell.

It's time to prepare yourself for a way out.

patriot; May 30, 2010 6:00 PM
Strange Logic said...: Not affected said :
"WE WILL NOT DIE IF WE DO NOT HAVE A CAR... I GUARANTEE IT !!"

I say : You will not die if you do not have your pants on when riding the MRT train. So why are you not showing off your branded underwear?; May 30, 2010 9:26 PM
Not Affected said...: To Strange Logic:

Because I do not wear any..and i wont die either.

But i will get arrested for being naked in public... but yet I will not die.; May 30, 2010 10:58 PM
Anonymous said...: For my hubby and me, LIFE is really much tougher now as compared to ten years ago when our incomes were much lower! The increase in our income is not in pace with the rise in the cost of living. We found ourselves much poorer and have to lower our standard of living. We are in our 40s, have 2 lower secondary school-going children and parents to feed. It's getting more depressing each day. Our saving grace is our children, who will have a brighter future as they are both very bright and in top schools in S'pore. We feel sad knowing that we could not provide the kind of tuition/extra help that almost all their peers are getting (even in top schools, the brightest of the 'brights' still need tuition to stay on TOP!; May 31, 2010 1:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Reply to Strange Logic @ 9:26pm

My intrepretation of what "Not affected" wrote is that we should be sensible and differentiate between what we need from what we want.

Everyday, we are bombarded by all the marketing advertisement in all the media such as the TV and newspaper on the latest and biggest product. However, have we ever sit down and asked ourselves do we really need those things or do we want those things just to show others that we have got the latest and biggest. People are queueing up overnight to buy an iPad. It doesn't mean you are an alien if you don't join in the queue.

There is more than enough resources to provide for the need of every single creatures on Earth but the Earth will never be able to provide for the greed of even 1 person.

Merlion; May 31, 2010 3:01 PM
Strange Logic said...: It is indeed commendable to live within one's means. In this message: Life is more difficult, the focus is on the stress of living in SG and coping with our daily necessities/basic needs such as transport insurance hikes, making an honest living, running a viable business etc. Buying iPads or insurance premium of iPhones & travels to HK are all out of point. Here, we explore the increased hardship experienced by Singaporeans for an activity which is a necessity, over an interval of time eg. a remisier's job now compared with in the 80s or 90s.
There is no logic or bad logic when someone compares an activity with death, the ultimate event. I know you will not die if you don't owe a car, don't turn on air-con, don't buy an iPad/iPhone, don't wear pants on the MRT train or walk naked on the train. You don't need to tell us this, we all know it, that we will not die. BUT, we will be greatly inconvenienced, and this inconvenience makes our life much more difficult.
Your life will be difficult should you be arrested for being naked in public. Of course, we all know you will not die from being arrested. But if you really die, then your life will be delivered from all difficulties that SG society can impose on you, which is actually a blessing indeed.

See the point?; June 01, 2010 1:35 AM
Anonymous said...: """LIFE is really much tougher now as compared to ten years ago when our incomes were much lower! """"

Just imagine those without income or with only very little income. How are they going to survive???; June 02, 2010 11:26 AM
Carinsurance said...: The insurance premium has increasing day by day. Your information about Insurance, finance and current affairs is excellent. thank you for sharing info and your experience with us.; July 05, 2010 5:29 PM