Actually, why is the PAP obsessed with having a budget surplus?

[jacko123]

to have a larger bureaucracy, parachute in more and more ex-SAF generals/leeches.
80/20 rule.

 

[skylink67]

All the land sale and landlord earnings go into reserves. No one knows how much they have in the reserves.

I guess the only use of reserve is pay those GIC, Temasek elites?

 

[Comage]

Cause most of them have no idea how to run things. They are accomplished individual taskers but close to none of them actually have an proven records of actually running things to scale with ability to adapt to adverse situations.

So a surplus is an idiot proof way to shield themselves even though it shortchanges the people. But being forever in charge has its benefits of rewarding complacency.

Best answer of the day.

Not forgetting that if someone "fugs" it up - there's "surplus" budget to "fix" the mistake.

I have seen so many cases of municipal "improvements" that were done without consulting the residents.
When the work is completed and the improvement put into real use by residents - people send their complaints in... and then within the same month, the Bangla team comes again to "correct" the mistake....

Re-work upon rework. And yet the MP has the cheek to say:
- We listened to your feedback/concerns
- We improved your lives
- We put in the improvements/enhancements to your estate

When they should have "Do it Once, Do it Right".

 

[Rosanjinz]

Norway hab oil and natural gas leh.

then how you explain switzerland?

close to no natural resources, only reliant on their financial services industry, and still having a huge country budget deficit.

 

[TiedInsurer]

I mean, so many countries in the world, including the largest countries like China, USA, Japan, etc are all not even obsessed with it.

On paper, if your nation has enough reserves, there comes a point where you can FIRE the entire country. For Singapore, that figure is something like $18.2trillion. This is the point where Singapore has $5m for each sinkie citizen. For perspective, $18.2 trillion is about 65% of USA GDP, and about 36.5 times of Singapore GDP.

In practise...

 

[Hot_Dog]

then how you explain switzerland?

close to no natural resources, only reliant on their financial services industry, and still having a huge country budget deficit.

No leh, they hab something called the debt brake, they can run a deficit but temporary only and use surpluses from good years to cover leh

 

[nyxator]

then how you explain switzerland?
close to no natural resources, only reliant on their financial services industry, and still having a huge country budget deficit.

Switzerland has alot of water resources, minerals and about 1/3 of their land is used for agriculture.. we have no water and no land


Read HWZ Forum Rules!

 

[Hot_Dog]

common sense already tell chiu cannot run on a deficit. Where do chiu tink the money to cover the deficit comes from leh?

 

[Hot_Dog]

Can chiu run chiur life spending moar then chiur income? Where chiu tink the excess money a country need comes from when she overspends leh?

 

[hawkwind]

Why dun we look at the advanced countries that are have had deficit spending for years and are now crying mother because their debt burden is so high. The lesson for them is its easy to say lets spend but it's incredibly hard to say enough lets pull back.

 

[ShinnAsuka]

My feel is miw doing a 雪中送炭 tactic. Sell you fear (us tariffs), then let you know the party has strong foundation to tide you thru the difficult time with the vouchers. Sinkies didnt know these “vouchers” were funded by themselves via gst etc.

those extra funds can then be used to finance this and that projects, but not “over”maintenance.

 

[Philipkee]

then how you explain switzerland?

close to no natural resources, only reliant on their financial services industry, and still having a huge country budget deficit.

https://www.efd.admin.ch/en/the-debt-brake#The-key-components

Aren’t they also looking into managing the deficit? Maybe not as obsessed as us but they are also looking into it

 

[coyote]

there is a different between having a surplus and having excessive surplus lei

It's very different mindset between angmoh and Asians.

Angmoh, using Americans as eg looked fantastic from outside, big houses, no helper, use babysitters instead, spent money on night outs etc... every year spend a lot of money maintaining their roofs, their wooden walls of their bungalows...

Compared to Asian with lots of reserve, still dine out everyday, smaller houses like hdb or condominiums with shared and less maintenance fee but could be more expensive in values, but Asians still have 2 years emergency/reserved fund instead of the usual 6 months emergency fund as recommended by Ang moh financial experts.

Who do you think can out last longer in case of recession or pandemic? America's and USD is a little different being the world reserved currency, they can print money with little consequences... But Singapore has to defend its own currency by having huge reserves. Looking at the current tariffs war... Do you think it will be Americans with little to no saving or Chinese with more reserves can last longer and win the tariffs war? The answer is obvious.

Why do you see other currencies from USD, Australian, Euro, yen all depreciated and Singapore dollars have strengthen year after year? Singaporeans enjoyed all these fantastic vacations overseas because of our strong reserve and foreign reserve... All these does not come free... Don't take it for granted.

Be appreciative of what the previous government did to make your overseas holidays so much more shiok!!!

 

[Ye_Rongtian]

When you are down and out, who will help u? You live from paycheck to paycheck?

 

[eversomighty]

Norway hab oil and natural gas leh. hab timber to build house, hab fishes to makan.

our gehment got citizens to makan.. gst can wack till 20%

 

[Rosanjinz]

https://www.efd.admin.ch/en/the-debt-brake#The-key-components

Aren’t they also looking into managing the deficit? Maybe not as obsessed as us but they are also looking into it

precisely

There is nothing wrong with having a surplus. But having an excessive surplus is another thing

Is like, you only need 1 year of emergency funds, but you insist on having 3 years of emergency funds

 

[luckygal]

Can't imagine such a question being asked. The IQ level of some people is really spiraling downwards.

 

[samba fan]

we got million dollar salary to feed

 

[Philipkee]

precisely

There is nothing wrong with having a surplus. But having an excessive surplus is another thing

Is like, you only need 1 year of emergency funds, but you insist on having 3 years of emergency funds

I think once the habit of allowing budget deficits to happen occur, it will become a norm.

It’s like me. I pay my credit card debt in full each month. But I know some who don’t. If they have the discipline, it will still be made up eventually like maybe next month. But for some, it just gets worse and worse

And on what basis do you say 1 year vs 3 years?

 

[Mr.Chibaboom]

The actual numbers were never released because “ confidential state secret “ so no one actually knows if we have a surplus or a VERY huge surplus.

But one thing for sure Temasick and GIC have alot of money to burn soooooooo