Sg Budget 2009: Like that enough meh?

Today I strike at work, put on my headphones and listen to budget while watching Tharman's shining head. At first glance listen, not so bad.. 20.5 billion dollars lei, Tharman call it a Resilience Package. But the cabinet is full of greater mortals worthy of a million dollar annual wage each lei. So why they never come out with a Prosperity Package instead. Even MacDonald also try to give prosperity every year lor.

Granted, the world economy is doing badly and Singapore being heavily trade dependent is very badly hit. But its the cabinet's direction in the first place that led Singapore to being a global city attracting all the MNCs, neglecting to help local SMEs in the process. Now everyone not doing well liao how? Since our PM is the most expensive PM in the world, he surely have some extraordinary measures to help us, help the lesser mortals. If he cannot think of any, still got his lao peh and ah Goh to help him think. People say 三个臭皮匠,顶个诸葛亮. Now we have three immortals here, surely they can come out with policy that can save the country, save the world. So the budget proposed good or not? Is it extraordinary?

In my opinion, they really focus on saving companies in this budget. Thats why its only called Resilience budget, not a prosperity one. Let's take a look at the 2 measures which touch our national reserves first.

Job Credit Scheme
Each employer will get a 12% cash grant of the first $2,500 of employee's salary. Sounds good since the employer can save $300 a month for each worker.

But this only applies to employees with CPF. How about contract workers many of which have no CPF? How about the self-employed, not those very rich types like the guy who opens a Mama shop below your HDB block? Or the commission-based workers, which to my understanding, many are considered self-employed.

If I open my own bbq chicken wings stall, I see no incentive to hire Singaporeans. I think hire 2 ah tiongs to man the stall still cheaper. The job credit scheme only saves about 10% for employers. If employer not steady, they sack people can save 100%. Thats even better.

Special Risk Sharing Incentive (RSI)

This measure allows banks to share risk with the government when giving loans. Right now, liquidity is tight so its much more difficult to borrow money from banks. With this incentive, banks are more willing to finance loans.

I am not very good with my Economics. But this isn't really spending or is it? The government helps to share the loans only. Does that mean the monies will eventually return to the government and with added interest some more? I don't know lei. Someone please enlighten me. Now demand of goods and services low. Hearing that 300 000 people may lose their jobs make me think that Singapore is sinking. And if they are all gone, we will have even lesser demand for goods and services. And then we can increase the unemployment figures to half a million. A very beautiful vicious cycle. So I really hope this RSI can stimulate businesses and keep employment.

So businesses get lots of helps. How about households and individuals? There was very little to offer in terms of boosting domestic spending. Firstly, there are no GST cuts. But luckily GST also never increase. Although I wont mind GST increasing to 8.5% if public transport becomes free. Low income workers have increases to their WIS (Workfare Income Supplement). People who becomes unemployed have more things to choose from SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience) or get a job in the civil service which needs more people in healthcare, education and homeland security. People desperately in need of assistance gets an increase of $30 to their Public Assistance (PA) allowance. Not bad, still can buy 2 dozen chicken wings to eat. And how about the supposedly 8% of households that have HDB loan arrears of 3 months or more. Do they get any help? Hardly. Are we going to have our very own Mortage Crisis drama in Singapore?

How about the middle-income folk? People like me? What do we have? For starters, we have another giveout of GST credits coming this March. Ermm.. thats about it. No main course or desserts. Oh, there is still 20% reduction in Personal Income Tax. But more than half the population don't earn enough to pay income tax in the first place. This reduction in income tax will only benefit the rich more since the poor don't get anything out of it. So the very poor people get $30 more a month, the not so poor people gets nothing and the very rich people gets a lot more tax rebate back. What bullshit is this? Is it because our Gini coefficient shrank for the first time in a decade that we need to widen the gap again? And I thought this was a budget that will help low and middle-income Singaporeans to tide over the recession.

Of course there are still many measures in the budget. I won't want to go into them since their impact cannot be felt directly. I think many people (or is it just me?) will feel that somehow they are excluded from each and every scheme the Government introduced in this budget. At a time when many Singaporeans are already struggling during the golden period proclaimed by GodLee, I shudder at the thought of how our people, our citizenry, will handle this worst crisis since the Great Depression. (Some people may argue that this is not as bad as 1982 yet)

With this disappointing budget, our only hope is for our trade partners to revive their economies again. I wonder when was the last time so much expectations lies on the shoulders of one man? The same man that GodLee says is 'a flash in the pan'. If you had heard Obama's inauguration speech, it was electrifying. It was captivating. It made everyone think that he can save America, save the world. It made everyone think that he is Superman. He started with such a clean slate that it made everyone think that the American Dream is still possible. Barack did it, so can I. It made me think that I can pursue the American Dream too. I once had a Singapore Dream. It was a long time ago. That dream was dead and dusted when I see how absolute power has changed the workings of our government. That dream was dead and dusted when GodLee forgot he was once an Obama. That dream was dead and dusted when GodLee forgot that the government exists to serve the people and not the other way round. Now I just dream of eating the best bbq chicken wings in town.

Obama cannot and must not be allowed to fail. He is Superman. He is here to save the world.