Sion
Senior Member
Maybe IMF thought average SG is rich because we burnt lots of these :bsmilie:
Singapore must be a super rich nation to burn that much money in the 7th month every year:
Singapore is a very rich country?
- Thread starter Jedi
- Start date
Singapore must be a super rich nation to burn that much money in the 7th month every year:
Cars cost double anywhere else... YET #1 and #2 selling cars here are BMW / MERCEDES..... I think the only country that has that. :what:
Yeah either ALL Rich or Suckers for STATUS Symbols.... e.g. The Uncle with Rolex !!
Not exactly, I know some companies buy luxury cars for their sales staff to pick up big customers at the airport :bsmilie:
The special treatment usually will end up with successful sales
In Brunei, most fo the wealth are in the Royal family :bsmilie:
In SG, most of the wealth are control by a small group of people :bsmilie:
If the relax the rules of CPF and let people withdraw all their money at retirement. Our ranking will drop :bsmilie:
Buddy, we do need to care of our other fellow citizens that fell behind. We are community living creatures. If they cannot survive, we cannot too. You push the tiger to the wall ......
Drowning themselves with the iPhone and paper gain in their HDB price appreciation can only do that much. End of the day, it is still back to bread and butter and quality of life.
Singapore is a rich country, unfortunately it became so rich because it sucks the wealth of an average citizen and aggregates it into a few investment vehicles whose main objectives is to grow its portfolio.
If Singapore is purely a public listed entity on the stock exchange than I am sure most of its shareholders are very happy.
Unfortunately Singapore is firstly a country and we are talking about citizens who make a living in this country, who voted and trusted the government to make good decisions that balances a basket of objectives - social, economic and political.
We can see now that the government's overriding objective - growing its portfolio and monetizing every citizen is causing hardship, widening income inequality, etc.
For those of us who see this happening, the least we could do is to share this dark reality, explain that as citizens, we have options to cause a change and pray that our future leaders have the wisdom, compassion to empathize with the average citizen.
A government is about representation for the people making good decisions for its people.
A government that consist of certain echelon of the population, making decisions purely to grow its wealth is at best a capitalistic enterprise more suited in the ruthless financial marketplace.
Who do we want to represent the citizens of Singapore ?
If Singapore is purely a public listed entity on the stock exchange than I am sure most of its shareholders are very happy.
Unfortunately Singapore is firstly a country and we are talking about citizens who make a living in this country, who voted and trusted the government to make good decisions that balances a basket of objectives - social, economic and political.
We can see now that the government's overriding objective - growing its portfolio and monetizing every citizen is causing hardship, widening income inequality, etc.
For those of us who see this happening, the least we could do is to share this dark reality, explain that as citizens, we have options to cause a change and pray that our future leaders have the wisdom, compassion to empathize with the average citizen.
A government is about representation for the people making good decisions for its people.
A government that consist of certain echelon of the population, making decisions purely to grow its wealth is at best a capitalistic enterprise more suited in the ruthless financial marketplace.
Who do we want to represent the citizens of Singapore ?
Sion
Senior Member
Our wise leaders believe in making the cake larger. The trickle effect of a bigger cake is to let more people have a share of it.
That is why today everybody is taking home a piece of cake and happy and grateful about it.
Of course some cakes will have more toppings and some people will only bring home a cheese cake.
But nobody is hungry.
IMF list 2013 is interesting because it depends on what basis they drew up the ranking.
Statistics and ranking are always a matter of what one wants to measure and/or give higher weightage to.
And thus statistical result can be skewed in one way or another.
1. Qatar
2. Luxembourg
3. Singapore
4. Norway
5. Brunei
6. UAE
7. USA
8. Hong Kong
9. Switzerland
10. Netherlands
Some random observations:
• Qatar is notorious for ill treatment of foreign manual labour workers. Qatar won the right to host 2022 football world cup in a desert country. Hilarious big talk about airconditioning the whole football stadiums. To win the bid Qatar assured that it would build high-tech air-conditioned stadiums to keep them cooler. But it is an unsustainable and idiotic plan.
• Luxembourg - rich and keeping low profile. investment management centre. Banking secrecy.
• Brunei dependence on oil and gas. In about 20+ years Brunei's oil reserves are expected to run out. In about 30 years natural-gas will be depleted. Then what? Separately, the Kingdom announced going to impose Shariah law.
• UAE - also notorious for ill treatment of foreign manual labour workers. One of the 7 emirates, Dubai got conned into a senseless building spree to feed the ego of the ruler. World's tallest building (in the end have to be paid for by another emirate) and silly real estate purposely built into the sea in the shape of an oil palm, when they got lots of land.
• Norway - rich and keeping a low profile.
• USA - at #7 in the list below Singapore? That is a joke. USA is the world's largest economy and the sole super power. USA has the most billionaires and the most millionaires in the world. Just think of how much it costs to operate their 10 active (+ 3 under construction) aircraft carriers for 1 day. Although we have our own capable SAF, Singapore depends on USA military protection in the Pacific region.
• Hong Kong - not a country but a SAR and part of PRC. Very lucky because they do not have to worry about defense since PRC will look after that. Unfortunately a handful of mega rich developers have too much power, at the expense of the rest of Hong Kong people. Singapore almost learned their mickey mouse shoe box condominium units bad example but eventually came to our senses and realised how inhumane it was.
• Switzerland - rich and keeping a low profile. Definitely above Singapore in wealth ranking.
• Netherlands (Holland) - rich and keeping a low profile. Definitely above Singapore in wealth ranking.
Japan which is somehow not included in the list, has the 2nd most number of millionaire households.
Statistics and ranking are always a matter of what one wants to measure and/or give higher weightage to.
And thus statistical result can be skewed in one way or another.
1. Qatar
2. Luxembourg
3. Singapore
4. Norway
5. Brunei
6. UAE
7. USA
8. Hong Kong
9. Switzerland
10. Netherlands
Some random observations:
• Qatar is notorious for ill treatment of foreign manual labour workers. Qatar won the right to host 2022 football world cup in a desert country. Hilarious big talk about airconditioning the whole football stadiums. To win the bid Qatar assured that it would build high-tech air-conditioned stadiums to keep them cooler. But it is an unsustainable and idiotic plan.
• Luxembourg - rich and keeping low profile. investment management centre. Banking secrecy.
• Brunei dependence on oil and gas. In about 20+ years Brunei's oil reserves are expected to run out. In about 30 years natural-gas will be depleted. Then what? Separately, the Kingdom announced going to impose Shariah law.
• UAE - also notorious for ill treatment of foreign manual labour workers. One of the 7 emirates, Dubai got conned into a senseless building spree to feed the ego of the ruler. World's tallest building (in the end have to be paid for by another emirate) and silly real estate purposely built into the sea in the shape of an oil palm, when they got lots of land.
• Norway - rich and keeping a low profile.
• USA - at #7 in the list below Singapore? That is a joke. USA is the world's largest economy and the sole super power. USA has the most billionaires and the most millionaires in the world. Just think of how much it costs to operate their 10 active (+ 3 under construction) aircraft carriers for 1 day. Although we have our own capable SAF, Singapore depends on USA military protection in the Pacific region.
• Hong Kong - not a country but a SAR and part of PRC. Very lucky because they do not have to worry about defense since PRC will look after that. Unfortunately a handful of mega rich developers have too much power, at the expense of the rest of Hong Kong people. Singapore almost learned their mickey mouse shoe box condominium units bad example but eventually came to our senses and realised how inhumane it was.
• Switzerland - rich and keeping a low profile. Definitely above Singapore in wealth ranking.
• Netherlands (Holland) - rich and keeping a low profile. Definitely above Singapore in wealth ranking.
Japan which is somehow not included in the list, has the 2nd most number of millionaire households.
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Real World.... when country is over inflated...
This prove that Zimbabwe is a "richer" country than SG. They have more trillionaires than SG.
SG must print more trillion dollars note to burn for next year 7th month :bsmilie:
Then everyone would fulfill their dream of becoming a trillionaire when they go to the afterlife :bsmilie:
IMF list is based on total wealth divided by population. It does not take into account the income distribution and inequality and living standard.
If you notice, a substantial part of our national wealth lies mostly with only a few institutions and couple of families.
If you use the cake analogy, the cake is growing bigger each year, but the majority of people's share is stagnant or shrinking.
We frequently read from mainstream media that in a growing economy, everyone benefits. is that so? Did the poorest and middle class really benefit ?
Have we verified these statements with independent sources?
if we are keen to buy the newest EM1 or GX7, do we read the review at Olympus or Panasonic website or look for an independent source ????
Just like a company's PR, the mainstream media promotes it's own objectives and not it's role to report the whole truth.
So, if IMF draws up a ranking that takes into consideration the bottom 80% wealth of a countries population, I am pretty sure Singapore 's ranking will not be at the top, more likely will be around the middle together with countries like - Malaysia, Romania, Czech Republic and definitely way below Switzerland, Japan, Korea, HongKong etc
If you notice, a substantial part of our national wealth lies mostly with only a few institutions and couple of families.
If you use the cake analogy, the cake is growing bigger each year, but the majority of people's share is stagnant or shrinking.
We frequently read from mainstream media that in a growing economy, everyone benefits. is that so? Did the poorest and middle class really benefit ?
Have we verified these statements with independent sources?
if we are keen to buy the newest EM1 or GX7, do we read the review at Olympus or Panasonic website or look for an independent source ????
Just like a company's PR, the mainstream media promotes it's own objectives and not it's role to report the whole truth.
So, if IMF draws up a ranking that takes into consideration the bottom 80% wealth of a countries population, I am pretty sure Singapore 's ranking will not be at the top, more likely will be around the middle together with countries like - Malaysia, Romania, Czech Republic and definitely way below Switzerland, Japan, Korea, HongKong etc
What type of list will put Singapore at the top?
Total wealth of top 10 institution/families
% of foreigners
% of foreigners converter to citizens
% of foreigners converter to citizens voted for the government
% of foreigners converted to citizens and profited from public housing
% of foreigners given citizenship to play for adopted country in sports and who has gone home to its birth country after enjoying a payout
.....and some others ?
Total wealth of top 10 institution/families
% of foreigners
% of foreigners converter to citizens
% of foreigners converter to citizens voted for the government
% of foreigners converted to citizens and profited from public housing
% of foreigners given citizenship to play for adopted country in sports and who has gone home to its birth country after enjoying a payout
.....and some others ?
Sion
Senior Member
The one family is Singapore family which you and I belong.
The one company is our company: Singapore Inc. which we are truely proud of.
Sion
Senior Member
Maybe IMF thought average SG is rich because we burnt lots of these :bsmilie:
Don't forget to burn a few Leica cameras to go with the trillions:
its ok .... Ah Long China now worried that the US cannot pay back and/or defaults .... who really do you think is in driving seat ?
And Ah Long China unfortunately has not enough power militarily or enough real friends to redeem its debt
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drawing a poverty line would help the poorest as more financial aid would be channel to them.
on one hand we have SWF like TH and GIC stashing our billions away and on the other hand, we have the poorest who cannot be defined.
When we can't define the poorest, we do not acknowledge explicitly its existence and so don't need to channel any financial aid to them.
how sad.
it is like seeing beggars on the street and walking pass them because I am telling myself these beggars are actually rich and begging is only their hobby.
on one hand we have SWF like TH and GIC stashing our billions away and on the other hand, we have the poorest who cannot be defined.
When we can't define the poorest, we do not acknowledge explicitly its existence and so don't need to channel any financial aid to them.
how sad.
it is like seeing beggars on the street and walking pass them because I am telling myself these beggars are actually rich and begging is only their hobby.
Singapore can be number one if we collect rent from the dead.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...S-notes-demanding-overdue-rental-payment.html
World Bank's $1.50 a day is not accurate because there are so many different countries, each with their own cost of living.
That is quite different from saying that a theoretical poverty line is irrelevant.
If you are starving and don't get any help for a long time, you will be dead (not just dead poor).
Local charities do try to help. There are several, of which 2 examples are Central Sikh Temple and Singapore Buddhist Lodge at Kim Yam Road have free vegetarian meals for the poor. No questions asked.
That is quite different from saying that a theoretical poverty line is irrelevant.
If you are starving and don't get any help for a long time, you will be dead (not just dead poor).
Local charities do try to help. There are several, of which 2 examples are Central Sikh Temple and Singapore Buddhist Lodge at Kim Yam Road have free vegetarian meals for the poor. No questions asked.
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