apples to apples
The GST announcement really came as quite a shocker, non? These days, I read our papers with a double dose of skepticism and after going through four full pages on the issue, I couldn't find a single speck of disagreement on the policy anywhere. Surely everything has its good and bad?
It drew plenty of ire from the online comments I've read so far though. But I'm not going to repeat all these "robbing the poor to feed the poor" rhetoric because I'm sure the government must have already considered most of the obvious factors. Or maybe they simply know too well that Singaporeans will complain even more if income tax is raised instead.
I also notice from reading the reports that they like to say things like, "Oh, we shouldn't compare with other countries because we are different/unique" when rejecting suggestions for social welfare, old-age pension, minimum wage, etc. The same has been said for non-economic issues like democracy and freedom of expression. Which is fine, really.
Except that in the same breath they continue to utter things like, "Look, their VAT is more than 20% while our GST is just 7%", or "Our income tax is amongst the lowest in the world!" to justify or support the policy changes they are pushing for.
What's with that? If you say don't compare, then don't compare anything at all. Don't conveniently compare the aspects in your favour and write off those against you as "can't be compared", heh!
It drew plenty of ire from the online comments I've read so far though. But I'm not going to repeat all these "robbing the poor to feed the poor" rhetoric because I'm sure the government must have already considered most of the obvious factors. Or maybe they simply know too well that Singaporeans will complain even more if income tax is raised instead.
I also notice from reading the reports that they like to say things like, "Oh, we shouldn't compare with other countries because we are different/unique" when rejecting suggestions for social welfare, old-age pension, minimum wage, etc. The same has been said for non-economic issues like democracy and freedom of expression. Which is fine, really.
Except that in the same breath they continue to utter things like, "Look, their VAT is more than 20% while our GST is just 7%", or "Our income tax is amongst the lowest in the world!" to justify or support the policy changes they are pushing for.
What's with that? If you say don't compare, then don't compare anything at all. Don't conveniently compare the aspects in your favour and write off those against you as "can't be compared", heh!
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