PM Lee: Social safety net 'working'

• Clivebenss

  3 Dec 10, 11:34

  Dec 3, 2010 - Straits Times

  by Teo Wan Gek and Zakir Hussain

  SINGAPORE'S social safety net is working well and the Government will keep finding ways to improve it, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged yesterday.

  While Singapore is a meritocratic society, 'it is also a community helping one another and progressing together', he said.

  Society is feeling the strain of globalisation, ageing and troubled families, he noted.

  But deciding how best to help the poor is a complex issue.

  Singapore's social safety net has to work without creating a handout mentality, weakening the competitive work ethic or imposing a tax burden that may prove impossible to roll back, Mr Lee added.

  He was speaking to 400 community and grassroots leaders and social workers at a lunch to mark the fifth anniversary of the Community Care Endowment Fund (ComCare) and to thank them.

• Zweiz

  3 Dec 10, 11:46

  in other news: singapore streets are safe, hdb flats are affordable, kids will happily defend singapore, public transport hits 90% rating and employment at its highest level since 1991

• Clivebenss

  3 Dec 10, 11:52

  "everything" in good order.

  

• charlize

  3 Dec 10, 11:57

  Their net looks like just one string. 

• Clivebenss

  3 Dec 10, 12:51

  tight rope.

  

• dechang

  3 Dec 10, 12:59

  I think the 1st step to improve singapore safety net is to cut the salaries of the ministers and donate it to charity

• charlize

  3 Dec 10, 13:01

  We have GST to help the poor.

• eagle

  3 Dec 10, 13:55

  Originally posted by dechang:

  I think the 1st step to improve singapore safety net is to cut the salaries of the ministers and donate it to charity

  I like this idea.

  Wonder if our PM is still donating his salary raise

• dechang

  3 Dec 10, 14:25

  Originally posted by eagle:

  I like this idea.

  Wonder if our PM is still donating his salary raise

  
  Maybe our PM never donate his salary rise at all

• Rock^Star

  3 Dec 10, 15:00

  he hasnt been to the beaches for a long tme i bet. The typical PAP self praise.

• Arapahoe

  3 Dec 10, 20:53

  of course lah...u ask him has he ever go hungry?

• dechang

  3 Dec 10, 23:26

  Originally posted by Arapahoe:

  of course lah...u ask him has he ever go hungry?

  of course he never go hungry before but he will lie and come out with great stories like when he was in ns he was being treated like any other people who had to eat field ration during field camp etc..

• ditzy

  3 Dec 10, 23:32

  Its a farkling net, not a tarp.

• charlize

  4 Dec 10, 13:05

  http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/12/four-pillars-of-social-security-really/

   

  

• charlize

  4 Dec 10, 13:07

  Originally posted by ditzy:

  Its a farkling net, not a tarp.

  So you see how many people easily slip through the large holes in the net.

   

  When there is nothing on the net, they claim everybody and everything is hunky dory.

   

  They don't bother looking below at who fell through the gaps.

• likeyou

  4 Dec 10, 14:34

  Originally posted by dechang:

  
  Maybe our PM never donate his salary rise at all

  
  Did we ever see any charity show that shows mp donating?

  Answer : No.

• likeyou

  4 Dec 10, 14:35

  Originally posted by charlize:

  So you see how many people easily slip through the large holes in the net.

   

  When there is nothing on the net, they claim everybody and everything is hunky dory.

   

  They don't bother looking below at who fell through the gaps.

   

  Yes spore has a good safety net, but then the safety net has big holes between the lines...making pple fall off from the net...just like big fish get caught while small fish slip out from the hole.

• eagle

  4 Dec 10, 15:14

  Originally posted by likeyou:

  
  Did we ever see any charity show that shows mp donating?

  Answer : No.

  Got leh.

  They show the MP and other guests of honours calling the hotline from their handphones. $50 to shut others up for saying that they didn't donate is very cheap.

   

  But whether the calls went through I wouldn't be sure.

• dechang

  4 Dec 10, 21:31

  Originally posted by eagle:

  Got leh.

  They show the MP and other guests of honours calling the hotline from their handphones. $50 to shut others up for saying that they didn't donate is very cheap.

   

  But whether the calls went through I wouldn't be sure.

  for show only lah. what is donation of $50 for the MP who earn so much money?

• Clivebenss

  5 Dec 10, 10:39

  Originally posted by eagle:

  Got leh.

  They show the MP and other guests of honours calling the hotline from their handphones. $50 to shut others up for saying that they didn't donate is very cheap.

   

  But whether the calls went through I wouldn't be sure.

  

• Vote PAP OUT to Save SG

  5 Dec 10, 13:20

   

  Singapore's unremarkable happiness index

  Pursuing perfection to our perennial peril
  Radha Basu, Straits Times 5 Aug 09;
  
  A RECENT article in this newspaper on how Singapore was placed an unremarkable 49th out of 140 countries in a 'happiness index' has unleashed much soul-searching.
  
  One reader wrote to The Straits Times' Forum Online to dub the results 'disturbing'.
  
  'By all counts, we are a materially wealthy nation, so why are Singaporeans not happy with their lot,' he asked.
  
  Nearly 20 people weighed in with answers. One said Singaporeans aren't happy because 'we are slaves to $$$'.
  
  Another cited the complaints that appear regularly in ST Forum - 'noisy neighbours, cats pooing, MRT eating, queuing, noise, ticketing, waiting...even Ms Singapore also not spared' (sic) - before philosophising: 'Like that how to be happy? Live and let live la!'
  
  A third blamed the lack of 'social safety nets' like a national pension scheme for our high stress levels.

  http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2009/08/singapores-unremarkable-happiness-index.html