Lifestyle of the not so rich and not so famous

With the ever increasing cost of living in Singapore, old Singaporeans are faced with the inevitable of reducing spending power.  

The poorer community is impacted even more so.  Families that are impacted with health issues are even worse.

Bad sentiments sometime translate to crime or riots, which in turn force the law enforcement to use more cameras to monitor troubled areas, which in turn invade Singaporeans privacy. 

So, even tough you see record branded cars on the road, in the country where "leading of" cars cost more than houses in some other country, the underlying people in the lower hierarchy is increasing unhappy. 

So what is next? Another election followed by more inflation ? Inflation of GST?  Inflation of transportation? All true. 

Take example of transportation, the rapid increase of the number of subway lines in the future is to tackle the increased population size(due to overly import of talents - a quick n dirty way of increasing GDP), will inevitably increase the infrastructure running cost.  If the same people who take the trains today continue to travel the same manner with more (say quadruple the number of )mrt stations/lines, your train trips will have to quadruple as well. 

Buckle up boys n girls.  It's a ride that will not be pretty for the people that do not have the lifestyle of the rich and famous. 

The case of the evil old man

Once upon a time, there was an old man.  He looked like the exact opposite of Santa Claus, skinny and frail. 

His heart didn't  have any giving spirit, some say he didn't have a heart at all. 

Even when people exact kindness towards him, never expect anything close to the word "kind" shall  return. 

Some said that it was the love of money that caused his character to fall into such a dark place. Greed.  No lackin of Greed. 

The joke about Jews and money don't even compare. So now you know, and I shall name him SL

taxi fares hike!

So what are you going to do about it? I always thing it is demand vs supply

I believe most folks that take taxis are either out of necessity(eg. Tourists, disable, old-age folks) or business folks (company pays for it.. so...)

The other batch is after mid-night, no other forms of transport.. so cab it is!

With the hike, during this economical time is a bad move by the taxi companies. But I guess the demand must be so high (especially with the new Casinos), that they know they can get away with this.

All we can do as consumers who is cornered by a monopolized transportation system (where by companies can band together to increase prices) is to reduce our usage.  Afteralll, if you're not rushing for time, why not take a leisurely bus or MRT back home, or do abit more walking - its good for your health.

All we can do is band together and make ourselves happier and more healthy in the long run. Reduce your reliance on taxi as much as possible - start now!


Here is a view from Mr Joseph Wong who was published in myPaper on 15 Dec 2011. (click to see whole article)

Age and marital status

When you are young an people ask you are your marital status, the straightforward answer is one of the following:
1. I'm single
2. I'm married or attached....

That's all Fine until you get older.

I'm single or I'm still single seem to sound strange.

What would be the ideal phrasing to convey the message ?

How about :
I've never married. Seems more appropriate for older folks.

What do you think ?

Iphone for Ass

Bye bye Steve Jobs. Thank you for your wonderous contribution to society and fanboys at large.

Hope the iPhone 5x will still be forthcoming and not be demolished with your unfortunate demise.

Meanwhile, I'm sure there will be power struggle within Apple. Samsung's lawyers must be celebrating hoping that the lawsuits will be dropped.

Distance Fare is Fair?

The launch of the so-called "Distance Fare" has just kicked into effect. It is supposed to create a fairer way to charge commuters - at least that was the marketing spin.

So far, personally I've been experiencing a 10 to 30% hike in fares comparing to the previous system. My statistics maybe biased as I primarily take short distance rides. Perhaps commuters who travel longer distances have lower rates ??

An Era of Downsizing - HP goes at it again

Yes... once again, Hewlett-Packard Co., the PC giant, plans to reduce it's workforce by a whooping 9000 jobs by 2013 starting today. The cost of paying severance and modernizing/automating it's data centers amounts to $1 billion dollars!
This move is supposedly bring in net annual savings of $500 million to 700million by end of fiscal 2013.

One wonders how far such downsizing can go... possibly forever... like Robert T. Kiyosaki said in his book "Retire Young, Retire Rich".... "How to do more and more with less and less?"