Of Economics and Other matters
Having studied Economics during my Junior College time, i cant help but wonder at the lastest announcement that GST increase are meant to help people. In fact it seems to go counter to what i do know of economics...but then again i am no scholar so perhaps in the eyes of some i am not qualified to air my concerns, nevertheless i dun think i am breaking any of the laws so i shall carry on.
There are three forms of taxation, namely progessive, regressive and i have forgotten what the third is. But i will focus only on progressive and regressive as these are the two forms of taxation that have a bearing on income inequality.
Progressive taxation helps to reduce the issue of inequality. This is because those with a greater income will have to pay more tax. Regressive is the opposite; those with less income will pay a larger proportion of their income in tax. Thus Progressive Taxation will help narrow the income gap, while regressive taxation will widen the income gap.
So where does GST come in? Since it is a tax on all goods and services, and those with lower income will spend a greater proportion of their income on goods and services, we can therefore conclude that GST is a regressive tax.
But wait, Mr Lee did say that the GST will help fund the increase in government spending to help those with lower income... so this GST will help those with lower income!!!!
Perhaps thats what our ever reliable press is trying to drive into the minds of the people......however such a view is too optimistic by far...
Why so? Well, remember that no one knows where the money goes due to something called internal checks and balances, so what we give may not be equal to what we receive...thus will it be our net gain or loss? One must wonder....
And do not forget, some of those in the lower income group earn really little....cuz we dun have a minimum wage and with competition from foreign labour such wages are depressed further...so whether this thing about GST helping people is really debatable...
Anyway on other issues... as representatives of the people,it comes as no surprise that members of parliament will face a lot of complains from the people...in fact in my opinion listening to complains is less than the bare minimum of what a member of parliament should be doing, but more of that another time. Thus the fact that some mps are complaining that singaporeans are complaining leave me baffled...as a representative of the people u should expect them to come to u should they have any concerns... since ur oreddy paid more than what mps are paid elsewhere shouldnt u have the decency to listen to their concerns instead of condemning them? How can u represent the people if u dun want to empathise with them? With that, i do not remember who are the mps who said that, but i dread to think of that goes on in their minds and in the minds of their kids (remember Wee Shu Min?)
Having studied Economics during my Junior College time, i cant help but wonder at the lastest announcement that GST increase are meant to help people. In fact it seems to go counter to what i do know of economics...but then again i am no scholar so perhaps in the eyes of some i am not qualified to air my concerns, nevertheless i dun think i am breaking any of the laws so i shall carry on.
There are three forms of taxation, namely progessive, regressive and i have forgotten what the third is. But i will focus only on progressive and regressive as these are the two forms of taxation that have a bearing on income inequality.
Progressive taxation helps to reduce the issue of inequality. This is because those with a greater income will have to pay more tax. Regressive is the opposite; those with less income will pay a larger proportion of their income in tax. Thus Progressive Taxation will help narrow the income gap, while regressive taxation will widen the income gap.
So where does GST come in? Since it is a tax on all goods and services, and those with lower income will spend a greater proportion of their income on goods and services, we can therefore conclude that GST is a regressive tax.
But wait, Mr Lee did say that the GST will help fund the increase in government spending to help those with lower income... so this GST will help those with lower income!!!!
Perhaps thats what our ever reliable press is trying to drive into the minds of the people......however such a view is too optimistic by far...
Why so? Well, remember that no one knows where the money goes due to something called internal checks and balances, so what we give may not be equal to what we receive...thus will it be our net gain or loss? One must wonder....
And do not forget, some of those in the lower income group earn really little....cuz we dun have a minimum wage and with competition from foreign labour such wages are depressed further...so whether this thing about GST helping people is really debatable...
Anyway on other issues... as representatives of the people,it comes as no surprise that members of parliament will face a lot of complains from the people...in fact in my opinion listening to complains is less than the bare minimum of what a member of parliament should be doing, but more of that another time. Thus the fact that some mps are complaining that singaporeans are complaining leave me baffled...as a representative of the people u should expect them to come to u should they have any concerns... since ur oreddy paid more than what mps are paid elsewhere shouldnt u have the decency to listen to their concerns instead of condemning them? How can u represent the people if u dun want to empathise with them? With that, i do not remember who are the mps who said that, but i dread to think of that goes on in their minds and in the minds of their kids (remember Wee Shu Min?)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home