When the current ruling party first came to power it had the interest of the population at heart. Housing units & hawker centre land parcels are for the benefit of the masses with little markup. This kept the cost of living low & a respectable lifestyle without absurb amounts of debt.
Over the years the ruling party's mentality has mutated beyond recognition. It now sought to maximise $$ going into its coffers by sucking as much $$ out of the populace. Housing units are at record highs by manipulating supply & demand. Retirement fund of the masses are sucked up by insane 30 year mortgages in a volatile economic environment. Land for hawker centres are tendered out to private developers with a reserve price bid. This in turn led to: record bid -> record rentals -> high consumer prices.
If price of many daily necessities are kept affordable, the ruling party wouldn't have to resort to flooding in hordes of mainly cheap foreign workers to keep business cost low & competitive.
Imagine $1 desert (hawker ctr) vs $4 desert (eatery booth in mall). That's how absurb the rentals i find. Why should my $$ go into paying for such unproductive high rentals which only benefit a few while the rest are suffering?
Might as well eat $1 desert at the hawker centre than $1 coffee/tea from opposite coffeeshop. With $1 i can savour 4 different types of desert compared to the mall's $4.
Think value for $$ & not cheap price alone.
Personally, i consider S'pore is already on track for long term decline just on demographics alone. Writer who wrote to the State Times is too generous when he wrote few generations. No need to wait for few generations to pass, S'pore is declining already with pro-birth policies being an utter failure since implementation 10 years ago. Root of problem not solved - sucking of people's $$ to govt hands.
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Housing prices can keep Cupid at bay
Jun 25, 2011
THE decline in marriage rate to a historic low last year is alarming. This, combined with the record low fertility rate last year, presents an existential crisis for Singapore, within a few generations' time.
This news comes on the back of record high property prices, both in the private market as well as in public housing.
These 2 issues are inter-related. For example, I am looking to marry & have children soon, but the heavy debt burden of housing that I will be subject to for 30 years is a major discouraging factor that I will have to consider.
Similarly, many couples my age simply cannot afford to get married & have children, with the many financial burdens they are made to bear, such as servicing loans for university fees, forking out money for the upkeep of elderly parents & dealing with rising inflation.
Cost of housing is by far the heaviest financial burden for people aiming to have kids & start a family & if the Government is serious about tackling the national crisis in the severe decline of marriages & births, it must consider lowering public housing prices for first-time applicants.
This is a grave crisis & it must be dealt with more drastically, even if it means lowering the amount of money that will go into the reserves. The very existence of Singapore is at stake.
Nicholas Loh
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