Wednesday, March 2, 2011

From Mee Siam To Chilli Crabs

Uh, GST is not regressive,
'cos, er, George Yeo says so!
Responding to the Hougang MP's call to cut the GST from 7% to 5% to help people cope with inflation, Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) demonstrated the quality of the incumbents in office: "High income earners, we know, consume more and therefore pay higher GST."

Just as Goh Chok Tong missed out on the definition of gerrymandering, de Souza is equally clueless about the regressive nature of GST.

Dictionary.com defines regressive tax as a tax that takes a higher percentage of low incomes than high ones. Regressivity is considered undesirable because poorer people pay a greater percentage of their income in tax than wealthier people. Sales taxes, especially on food, clothing, medicine, and other basic necessities are widely cited as examples of regressive taxes. If de Souza wants to do the right thing and get the high income earners to pay more, perhaps he should introduce a luxury tax like Indonesia's Sales Tax on Luxury Goods (Pajak Penjualan atas Barang Mewah). But, ah, that would cut too close to his income bracket.

Not only is Goh decidedly blinkered about the shady aspect of gerrymandering, he is also hopeless about running a hawker stall. Referring to Goh's analogy between a good candidate in a new area and the operator of a famous chilli crab stall, Workers' Party's Sylvia Lim had retorted, "SM Goh must be aware that he is one of the three most well known chilli crab stall operators, besides Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, operating chain stalls all over Singapore in the form of GRCs." Goh was obviously ignorant of the cardinal tenets of a successful business set up. Ask any other streetwise chill crab operator - the business is all about location, location, location! But, hey, what does he know, he didn't start the family business, he was merely babysitting for the transition from mee siam to chilli crabs. Chilli crabs mai hum, anyone?

5 comments:

  1. chilli crabs mai hum?
    Ha,thats a more exotic dish than the meesiam with hum.
    After 50 yrs in power with weak oppostions to drill their policies, looks like they have lost all the mark for intelligent talk.
    According to Wooden, redrawing of electoral bounderies is to help the oppositions and he expects voters to buy that.
    Give us a fxxking break!

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  2. i don't think the opposition is weak. it can certainly be quicker on its feet in replying to some of the absurd rebuttals to its sensible arguments. but it has to contend with being totally under-reported. as such u never really get to read what it says, just the bits where it lapses. and these are played up.

    if the same was done to the incumbent party, its members too would look wishy washy. the odd thing is even though this isn't done to them, they still look bumbling and their arguments lack common sense and credibility.

    witness the recent talking point show on TV. 2 lawyers were sent in to bat for the incumbent party. (odd that no one in that party felt he could stand up to the other guys on his own. whoever needed someone to hold his hand. safety in numbers, eh?) lawyers were sent, presumably becos they have to be able to think on their feet. but these kept tripping over their feet.

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  3. It only goes to show that our PAP leaders has no basic emphathy for the less privileged.

    There was even this MP who said that those old HDB blocks earmarked for en-bloc devt cannot be rented out to residents in the interim because he was so concerned that they will grow attached to the surrounding environment. You see, he rather have them rented out to foreigners instead of those desperate citizens queuing for a rental flat.

    No wonder one of those PAP MP offsprings even dared to tell those out-of-luck ones to get out of her uncaring face !

    What the hell do we vote for PAP MPs who tell us basically to f**k off ?

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  4. In fact among the Father, the Son & the Holy Goh , they have created a very successful franchise of stores in the name of PAP grassroots, GLCs & the GIC just to name a few. All these progressively contribute to their power andwealth, but regressively retarded their empathy. This MP is just another cookie cutter from the leegimes. I pray he will soon wake up to his consciousness that he's done more hum to the poor people he purportedly thought he was helping.

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  5. in truth, a seat warmer is a weak leader and
    that is what Goh CT has been.

    it also explains having a $600K peanuts wife who prefers to be on Durai's dessert menu after their chilli crabs...
    but sadly for Sporeans, the mee siam mai hum PM is the pits.
    which PM or leader on this planet allows his wife to manage state funds and hides behind his elderly father ?

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