Property Market Collapse By 2030

Some stats from State Controlled Media selling citizens on immigration to fix low fertility problem they created:
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- By 2030, number of elderly citizens will triple to 900,000, about 30% of population.
- With more exiting the workforce, burden of taxes will fall on smaller pool of working adult citizens.
- Currently, there are 6.3 working-age citizens supporting each elderly citizen. By 2030, this ratio will drop to 2.1:1
- Taking in 20,000 to 25,000 new citizens each year will bump up citizen old-age support ratio slightly from 2.1 to 2.4 working citizens for every elderly citizen, in 2030.
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Demographic time bomb is ticking & there's no stopping it. Retirement fund minimum sum rising each year & savings going down after being sucked dry by the ruling party especially through exorbitant public housing costs. Notice the note at bottom of chart said after 2002 is inclusively of permanent residents. I suspect PRs are added in so the gap does not look horrifying.

This tiny island's infrastructure is already bursting at the seams with so many people. Even with continued imports the pathetic improvement is from 2.1 to 2.4 because many of the imports will 1 day be a part of the elderly problem. As Warren Buffett said 'You can’t produce a baby in 1 month by getting 9 women pregnant’.

With high costs of living & discrimination of elderly workers due to overly liberal immigration & jobs policy, many elderly low on retirement $$$ would be forced to sell/downgrade their homes to fund medical & living expenses. When there's a tsunami wave of selling what happens to the price?

Baby boomers work & spend spend spend --> Boom Boom Boom
Baby boomers retire & cut cut cut -- Bust Bust Bust

I look forward to the big crash. Things have really gotten out of whack especially with housing costs driving up costs of living & literally making more & more people mortgage slaves.

China's State Capitalism Compared to S'pore's

Economist Graeme Maxton has a good summation of China's style of state capitalism. In a way S'pore State Capitalism approach is worse than China's. Words in brown below Maxton's points are my comments & observations:

- Big business often state controlled or at least state directed.
Same too for S'pore.

- Profit is less of motivating factor.
Profit is 1st priority for S'pore's ruling party. As if milking from citizens are not enough, floodgates are opened to flood in foreigners to boost consumption (gdp up) to rake in more profits for govt-linked companies. Nevermind that it makes many citizens lives worse off in the process (housing, vehicle prices etc shot up due to high demand).

- Led or directed centrally by ruling party with senior managers often moved between domestic competitors
Same too for S'pore. Perhaps even worse? Even scholar generals who has never run a private enterprise can be 'parachuted' into high positions upon retirement.

- May have shareholders & listed on stock market but reward for investors is meant to come mainly from how well they gamble on the market.
Many of S'pore's govt linked companies are listed companies & give out dividends. Govt being the majority shareholder uses the dividends approach to extract cashflow from its companies annually. $$ goes to sovereign wealth fund.

- New contracts often given to local companies to ensure skills & jobs & wealth are kept at home.
S'pore's ruling party doesn't care if skills & jobs are kept at home. They only care about $$$. Local skills & jobs can be displaced & replaced with generally cheaper foreigners as long as more profits for ruling elite. In a sense S'pore would face a Marianas Turkey Shoot scenario with locals lacking adequate skills & experience when foreigners leave.

- When chinese companies go aboard, the govt is behind them. State or 1 of its banks will provide client with low-cost financing while chinese companies provide low-cost labor, making it impossible for rival European or US bidders to compete.
S'pore companies go abroad? There's a lack of them since govt linked companies make up to 60% of S'pore's economy, the private sector are left with the leftovers & scraps. There is no low-cost S'pore labor since high public housing prices are being used to suck sinkies dry.

Transformers Combiners

Cool. Someone has stitched together a compilation of combiners in Transformers universe. Growing up in a low income family, i've never had any transformers toy cause back then the toys are frickin expensive being made in the USA. Combiners are all the more expensive as need to buy a complete set of 5-6 robots in order to combine into a big robot.

When a real movie on Transformers finally made to the big screen i'm rather dismayed at the changes made to robots. If u have no idea how much Michael Bay twisted Megatron, Optimus Prime from flat nose to long nose, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Devastator etc. Transformers the Movie Cartoon is a good watch. Nevertheless i still enjoyed Bay's TF movies since Transformers are being brought back after so many donkey years.

Switch to 720 resolution & watch movie full screen. Optimus Prime's voice is unique indeed. Same voice actor (Peter Cullen) after 20+ years. Quality is very good:
Transformers Movie (1986)

Need for more entertainment & to relive childhood memories? Here are all the generation 1 episodes:
98 episodes of Transformers G1

61% of Shoppers Still Expect Free Plastic Bags

I voted in a yahoo poll of whether shoppers ought to pay for plastic bags. I was dismayed that the results are almost the same as S'pore's elections last year - 60% chose to continue to vote in a party that's degrading S'pore.

60% of people don't seem to grasp the seriousness of environmental degradation. There's wanton usage of plastic bags in S'pore & i find it sick that the incumbent pro alien party wanting to boost the population to 6.5M to boost gdp- more people buying & consuming stuff & hence more plastic bags. Its act of cutting down plastic bags usage is a joke compared to neighboring Malaysia as i've written earlier.

I don't see anything wrong with curbing the wanton usage of plastic bags. People need to think about the years ahead & the future generations.

Free plastic bags for bagging the purchased items. There's a price for Free...... (which the majority don't realise or care)

Excuse Chits From Train Breakdown Shows Who are the Dumber

Train services has broken down for 3rd day in a row with the 3rd on the new circle line. Another nail in the coffin to the myth that higher fares = better services.

I find it stupid that the train company issues these excuse chits for people to prove why they are late for work/school etc. The boss/supervisor ought to be a dumbass requiring excuse chit as proof when news of breakdown are all over the media & on the train company website.

If a person has such dumbass boss/supervisor it is better to think about 'moving on' as there isn't much future working under such superior.

Those folks who collected excuse chits are coward bunch who waste time queing in line to obtain such chits to prove why they didn't clock in at the necessary time for work/school when news are all over the media. Such people tend to be the first in the firing line during layoffs.

Overpriced Old Chang Kee Currypuffs Use Computers for 5 Years

I have not bought nor eaten any stuff from Old Chang Kee which i find overpriced. Its currypuff sell at $1.30 which i find exorbitant. With same amount i can buy 9 currypuffs at JB, Msia at RM3. Moreover i don't see anything great about eating an overpriced currypuff spit out from a machine compared to home-made ones from a hawker in JB,Msia.

I surfed onto their corporate website & took a look at its financial report:

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Depreciation is computed on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets as follows:

Leasehold building – Over the remaining lease terms
Machinery and equipment – 5 years to 10 years
Motor vehicles – 5 years
Renovation – 5 years to 10 years
Electrical fittings – 5 years to 10 years
Furniture – 5 years to 10 years
Computers – 5 years
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Wow, their computers depreciated over 5 years. There's darn frugal. Personally i'm satisfied as long as my computer & related equipment can breach 3years of usage.

How many people buy stuff with a target of how long to use the item before allowing a new replacement purchase? Not many people can resist peer pressure when many people around are spending to upgrade to latest gadgets.

Competing by Being Obedient + Cheap like Foreigners is Foolhardy

In Marianas Turkey Shoot Coming to S'pore blogpost a few days ago i mentioned that the state controlled media reporting about some burmese targeting to save $25,000 & then return to Myanmar to start their own businesses.

Based on what i've experienced in my previous job, these foreigners are very obedient. Even stupid orders they will just follow & do. Their objective is blindly follow the stupid orders & collect the monthly paychecks so as to save $25,000 or whatever amount. Why bother running the risk of pissing off the superior by questioning whether an order make sense? Why bother risking looking like a troublemaker? $25,000 converted into myanmar currency packs a helluva punch in purchasing power.

Bosses who favor these foreign pets just because they are obedient over locals who voice out repercussions of executing an order are a stupid bunch. Besides is not advisable to work under such dumb bosses for prolonged periods.

The Vietcong knows they can't win in a conventional war against the Americans. They don't play by the rules of the stronger.
American revolutionaries knows they can't win in a conventional war against the mighty British. Similarly they don't play by the rules of the stronger.

You can't outWalmart Walmart, you can't outAmazon Amazon, similarly attempts by locals trying to outcheaper cheaper foreigners is largely an exercise in futility. Local environments have also made many sinkies very obedient in carrying out stupid orders that doesn't make sense too.

How not to be obedient & carry out dumb orders:
- when an enormous 30year mortgage loan beckons?
- when scared of losing job to cheaper foreigner?
- If lost job to cheaper foreigner where got $$ to buy toilet paper to wipe ass?
- bills, bills. bills - it just adds to the horrifying thought...

On the contrary if you have the courage to voice out repurcussions of a dumb order you'll more likely to be secure in your job compared to those obedient foreigners & ball-less sinkies. Remember that balls are always in short supply.

S'pore's Addiction to Hordes of Generally Cheaper Foreign Labor to Boost Consumption

S'pore's incumbent ruling party is addicted to cheap foreign labor. Low tech, low productivity. Rising income inequality = Rising social tensions. When the poor can't afford the hefty medical & hospitalization fees, it doesn't benefit society as a whole since diseases & germs doesn't discriminate the rich from the poor. The well-off face increased risk of catching diseases from the rest of the population.

How great is the eugenics theory(graduate mum give birth more) espoused by a surviving founding father of the country when his grandson is an albino?

Many SMEs are crippled with killer rents (govt is largest landowner) & can hardly afford to mechanize their operations to move up the tech ladder. With businesses becoming uncompetitive the Pro Alien Party opened the floodgates to import hordes of foreign labor to solve the problem it created with their $$ sucking killer rents.

It also benefited them as these generally foreign cheaper workers will boost the govt-linked companies through:

- foreign worker levies
- increased profits for public transport companies
- increased consumption on necessities such as shit paper to wipe assholes, toothpaste to brush teeth etc
- increased consumption of prostitutes services benefiting hotel room businesses
- increased 'victims' for casinos
- + many many others through goods & services tax

Languishing on the lower tech stuff(low productivity) by relying on cheaper foreign labor will eventually result in the same fate as the japanese's equipment being outclassed by the americans. The consequence - mass slaughter (read my Marianas Turkey Shoot Coming to S'pore)

'Marianas Turkey Shoot' Coming to S'pore

S'pore's ruling Pro Alien Party's pro alien policies is likely to have S'pore experiencing a Marianas Turkey Shoot scenario down the road.

Already we are hearing increasing news of locals being displaced by foreigners in their jobs. In some companies the foreign workers form their own gang & the locals being side-lined would then leave the company. Is akin to 反客为主 as the guest workers becoming the host. The IT sector is one such examplary example where foreigners have taken over the bulk of it.

As Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi hails 'new era' for Burma after landslide election victory, the burmese workers are leaving S'pore or looking forward to leaving S'pore:

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- Myanmar residents in Singapore are excited about their homeland's political & economic transformation.

- Half are back home, nurturing newly minted businesses. Other half are building up their savings to at least $25,000 before doing the same thing.
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When these foreign workers(not just burmese) leave S'pore what is gonna happen since local workers competency & experience that have been lost over the years due to displacement?

Watch the short clip 3x & listen to what's said at 2min part. That is what's likely to happen:

JCube Got Worst Cinema Counter in S'pore - Another 'SG World Class Achievement'

Went inside Jcube (previously Jurong Entertainment Center) take a look after library. Cramped place. Cinema counter is worst in S'pore. I would say all cinemas in johor, Msia are better. People queue up to buy tickets & snacks along a narrow corridor. Atrocious.


Picture posted on stomp clearly depicts it. Look at the madness of the crowd as they flock to the mall just opened a couple of days ago. The whole place is like a feeding frenzy - locusts swarms of consumers consuming consuming consuming.

Got times bookstore & boardgame shop, i doubt they'll survive long. Ceiling is high but horizontal space to walk is limited as CapitaLand's need to suck as much rent out of shops & pushcarts. A place to be avoided on weekends.

Peer Groups

We become who we usually hang out with. Though i'm a leisure touring cyclist i find myself in the better 33% in the 2 leisurely groups i have rode with. Upon riding with a group that rides for improving their endurance & speed i find myself in the bottom 33%.

Attrition rate in the training group riding more or less fixed training routes is higher as many newcomers are scared of the higher standard after a ride. Few carry on. Staying put with the old standard is more comfortable.

This peer group standards pervades many aspect of our lives. On financial aspect, if you hang out with spendthrifts you'll eventually get poisoned by their spendthrift ways & become one. Naturally i'm wary of these type of people & keep a distance. I don't usually judge people by the way they dress. I've seen a multimillionaire use an ordinary cellphone & another millionaire shop for groceries at a normal supermarket instead of the upscale Cold Storage supermarket.

Choose your peers with care. If necessary it is better to be alone than with undesirable company.

72km Ride:

S'pore Education is about Producing $-Minded Paycheck Slaves

Rewarding good character with hard cold cash. No Kidding! (13th March)

What piece of crap leadership. What kind of values are the younger generation being taught with throwing $$ to reward good behavior? This incumbent govt is boxed-in in solving issues. They typically use 1 approach --> $$. Either throw $$ at the problem or suck $$ to solve it. Scholar material my ass.

We have so many of these scholar paper generals in our armed forces. They think in a certain way after being mounded in a certain way. From the way those scholars tackle problems in govt, the enemy already know how those scholar paper generals think in times of conflict. And the cancer doesn't stop there. The rest of the population after having gone through the schooling process here have the 'lack of creativity' disease afflicting much of them. The students are mass-produced in school factories. When something is mass-produced with economies of scale, doesn't it make the product cheap cheap?

Products with little to no creativity spitted out of the S'pore school system. Products which companies can easily outsource or automate or offshore to cheaper location. That's the tragedy of obedient workers with no creativity.

After coming up with the $$ for good behavior scheme last month he now talk about:

"Education today is about developing enduring skills & character & less about transferring content knowledge. It is developing in our students an enduring core of competencies, values & character, so that they have the resilience to survive & succeed in a future which could be very different from the one that we are living in today." - Education Minister Heng Swee Keat (5th April)

I have wrote about in a few blogposts in the past that the present education system is obselete. He does deserve kudos in summing the real purpose of education. However the education system under govt control to mass produce paycheck slaves as cogs for the economic machinery is perhaps the slowest to reform.

Right now the system here is chronically emphasing on rote-learning. Memorise whatever crap & spit it out at tests & examinations. How much of the crap we memorise in school days do we still remember today? It is necessary when we can easily do a 'wiki' online?

Resilence to survive & succeed in future? Then how come $$ management skills are not being taught in schools? Let's face it. This incumbent gdp obsessed govt with its state capitalism approach needs hordes of paycheck slaves for its govt-linked companies to maximise its profits. As with schools are not enough, the housing agency is roped in to sell 30year housing mortgages to shackle them till literally death.

Education system has been designed from start to teach people just barely enough but not enough to move beyond survival & thrive.

Causeway to JB, Msia is Clear Today- Surprising

It was jammed yesterday during the 3day weekend. I heard from cyclists going for Pengarang loop yesterday that it was already jammed at 6am when they reached the immigration complex. Naturally i also expected a horrendous jam today too but i was mistaken.

Illusion of Security in Big Corpse-rations

Many sinkies have the illusion of job security if they work in a big corpseration. They may have grown up but mentally is still like a child desiring security by having a big parent to suck milk from.

Some sinkies think their self-esteem & self-worth is boosted by having a 'strong corporate father/mother'. They feel good hiding behind a big 'corpse' despite the job being soul-crushing.

I find it hard to understand people with spendthrift ways. Even if the big corporate parent is doing well, it doesn't mean their paychecks are still in the pipeline.

Many people have misplaced their loyalty especially to big corpse-rations thinking the 'big corpses' will eventually reward them. In this day & age, is wiser to be loyal to a bunch of good friends. In times of need, it is your good friends who are likely to lend a helping hand than the big corporate parent.

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HSBC Still Cut Jobs Despite Good Profits
- more than 100 HSBC S'pore employees retrenched as part of global jobscut exercise. Those 'asked to leave' were from different departments including IT & marketing.

- job cuts come despite HSBC S'pore performing well last year. It posted a pre-tax profit of US$595 million (S$744 million) in 2011 - a gain of 14% from a year ago.

- A staff who declined to be named said that 1 week after retrenchment, the mood in his office was still “gloomy”.

- HSBC announced last year that it will axe 30,000 jobs globally & sell almost 50% of its US retail bank branches. Restructuring its business as part of its global “efficiency programme”.