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You are supposed to fund it yourself with a forced savings account. It works provided you earned enough in your working years, didnt get too sick, didnt buy a t
by pydry 5y ago
You are supposed to fund it yourself with a forced savings account. It works provided you earned enough in your working years, didnt get too sick, didnt buy a too expensive flat.
There are legions of elderly workers who sell tissues in food courts to live who dont have enough saved. They have access to subsidized healthcare and apartments but they are still scrabbling for pennies to keep their head above the water.
It's an interesting approach in that the elderly arent completely hung out to dry but they're expected to still participate in a rat race and be subjected to market discipline albeit in a lower gear.
Macroeconomically, by expanding the labor pool it helps keep a lid on inflation. Hawker food, taxis, cleaners, etc. are all very cheap in SG.
- allisdust 5y agoThat's so sad. Most of humanity is from hand to mouth through out their lives. Never having the luxury of doing nothing. There should be something beyond democracy to make people less of cogs in a machine. As it stands all its doing is perpetuating intolerable levels of inequity where some have enough that their next 100 generations don't have to do anything and others don't know where their next meal will come from. Democracy is a straight jacket where rich get security and poor gets the stick and nothing can be done to change the status quo.
- pydry 5y agoThere was a party in the 1950s Singapore who said things along these lines. They were unceremoniously tossed in prison in a political crackdown, but they still left a long lasting imprint on the country despite constant attempts to exorcize their ghost. HDBs exist largely because it was an idea of theirs that was popular and because Lee Kuan Yew was afraid of their popularity. Officially, though, it happened because of LKY's "pragmatism".