daily gripe

oops. wait a minute. i remember something. i actually closed my savings accounts with that particular bank some months ago. i figured i didn't like driving to 4 different locations in one hour, around 1am at night. not my fault that my personal time happens to take place late at night.

and besides, i always thought personal banking meant that they would cater to MY time; not theirs'. that's why we are paying so much money, or even saving money in a bank for right? okay so maybe i might be overly optimistic.

anyways, i need to rant. 7% farking GST!!! those idiots in the government think we are all swimming in gold is it?

"dear, where you going?" the wife asks.

"oh, don't worry about me dear. i need to go jump into the gold pool after a long day of work." comes the reply.

they want to use the extra money earned to push it into budgets for taking care of the needs of the elderly, since singapore will have a larger population of older workers, citizens in the next 20 years.

who the fuck are they trying to fool??? c'mon, they haven't even released the results of any studies done to show the needs and potential costs of fulfilling any of those needs for the ageing population. and ALREADY they want to collect money. today's sunday times very nicely places a interview with some unsatisfied Finn who didn't like seeing HIS money go to paying for a welfare state. DUH. your money goes into someone's pockets you like??

but at the very least compare apples to apples, some European states actually give out FREE education, FREE healthcare. unlike some of the educational insitutions that i hear only bargains with the banks to give interest-free loans to the students, for 4 years. once you walk out the doors, you pay money. and there is a mentality here in singapore, a person would rather DIE than go to hospitals. i blardy wonder why.

so GST goes up to 7%, maybe 10% in the next couple of years, but will we ever see personal income tax go down? probably not. and this is why I think not. remember ERP? that brillant mechanism that was implemented against popular opinion? it actually had a purpose, to reduce traffic flow and make drivers less inclined to enter the CBD zone and therefore reduce traffic congestion in the business districts. somehow it evolved from CBD to all congested areas, now it sits before every major expressway. mornings, evenings, and we all know weekends too!

now remember the COE? of course, who can forget it right? well guess what, it's original rationale for existence was to raise the cost of cars so that buyers would refrain from purchase and the overall net driver numbers would remain low therefore keeping the traffic congestion down in major city areas.

that sounds suspiciously to me like what the ERP is for now...so why don't they pick between one or the other? oh but of course, if they do, then revenue is cut by x%. silly me.

btw, MCYS recently released a initiative for business to get seed money from them to start on ideas & services that aim to encourage the 'singles' market by creating opportunities for fun activities and opportunate gatherings. by this i mean that businesses are getting seed money from the government to pay them to think and focus on ideas for the singles out there to get laid, married and procreate (sometimes not necessarily in that order).

i wonder where the money for this initiative came from.