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The Future Singapore Party: FutureEnvisionists™
Our aim: To ensure equality and justice so that every citizen has his/her rights and thus can trust us so we excel together as a country!
Our values: Conservatism advocates: moral responsibility, strong government, and protected markets. Socialism advocates: social responsibility, omnipotent government, and controlled markets.
Our analysis of the current property problem:
One of the main problems in Singapore is poverty.
Statistical Indicators:
- In 1999, nearly 2,000 children did not attend school because their parents could not afford it. some dropped out of school because of poverty.
- one example was a technician lost his job and had no income for about half a year had to watch his two young children live on biscuits for days. A social worker said that the man had no money even to take the bus to find a job.
In 1999 monthly wages for low-skilled workers decreased by as much as 34 percent.
- Nearly 30 percent of households were not earning enough to afford the minimum standard of living.
- Between 1998 and 1999, the average household monthly income of the poorest 10 percent of the population decreased by nearly 50 percent. The following year, the figure nose-dived by another 54 percent.
- In 1990, the richest 10 percent of households earned 15.6 times more than the poorest 10 percent. By 2000, the gap widened: the richest 10 percent earned 36 times more than the poorest 10 percent.
- The number of households with monthly incomes of less than $3,000 was 40 percent in 1998 but increased to 42 percent in 1999.
- According to the 2000 Census, 12.6 per cent of households earned less than $1,000 per month. A monthly gross total household income of $1,500 and below is considered “poor” in Singapore.
- A more recent survey found that 16 per cent of the respondents had family members who often went hungry.
- In 2004 37,823 households could not afford to buy their own flats or rent homes in the open market.
We suggest the following ways to combat poverty:
1. Social services
2. Give the Elderly a Prescription Drug Subsidy
3.Lower ERP
4.Decrease the qualification for some jobs
5.Increase the Childcare subsidy
6.Unemployment Compensation
Our proposed solutions:
Other ways to combat poverty:
Social services
We should set up social service , which would help the elderly and the handicapped in their daily necessities. For example, they would visit the elderly homes’ and at the same time, buy some necessities for them. This may also include buying them packed lunch. Also, social services may also help them tidy up their home to make it look more presentable.
Centers can be set up to teach the elderly simple tasks, so that that they would be able to do them for a living. For example, sewing. Then centers would sell these sewed items and earn money for the elderly. In this way, the elderly would also be able to make friends and thus they would not be too bored at home.
Give the Elderly a Prescription Drug Subsidy
A number of things could be done to help the elderly poor get out of their poverty. Many of the elderly have social security income that helps but might not keep them out of poverty. Medicare, a health program provided , is a great help in providing the elderly with health care. Yet currently the prescription drugs that the elderly must pay for take a substantial chunk out of their monthly incomes.
Lower ERP
ERP is paid by drivers who uses the highway during a certain period of time. This ERP can go up to $3 per entry . this is very expensive, especially for drivers who drives frequently. They might use it to go to work every day. If they pay $3 every day, they might end up having paid quite a sum of money in the end. This sum of money might add up and be a great deal to them in the future especially when they are old. Therefore, the government should reduce the cost of ERP.
Decrease the qualification for some jobs
The government should decrease the qualification of some jobs, so that more Singaporean would be able to take up those jobs and make a living for themselves. However, government should take note that decreasing the qualification of these jobs should not affect the quality of work done. As this may adversely affect country’s economy.
Increase the Childcare subsidy
If we want to solve the problem of poverty in our country, we will need to continue to provide, and even increase, child care subsidies to include more mothers who want to get off of welfare and out of poverty.Helping poor people who have minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs with their child care expenses seems to be another key element in helping poor people to get out of their poverty.
Unemployment Compensation
To get people out of poverty, we need to provide them with services as soon as they lose their jobs. One step we could take is to provide enough money for them to pay their daily, weekly, and monthly bills.
