Clearing Trays at Hawker Centres

(Source: The New Paper)
There has been a recent debate over the 'clearing of trays' at hawker centres and this article has proven to be the last straw. In our previous post of Inflation: Excessive Rising Cost of Food, we have analysed and highlighted the discrepancy between lower cost of food and rising prices of hawker food and also pinpointed that someone along the food chain has been profiting unethically at the expense of the man in the street.

We would like to highlight that this article by KF Seetoh to be highly insensitive and adding on more financial pressure on the man in the street. He is suggesting that people who do not wish to clear their trays after eating should PAY A SURCHARGE, AMIDST RIDICULOUSLY HIGH FOOD PRICES ALREADY CHARGED BY THESE HAWKER CENTRES.

For someone who is earning good money and making a living going around eating good food and not having to worry about financial expenses to make such a suggestion is preposterous. What he is suggesting will only make the already rich monopolistic hawker centre owners even richer at the expense of the lower and middle class citizens, with their inflated food prices despite the plummeting cost of food in this worldwide recession. It is common knowledge that food prices remain stubbornly high despite the plunge in cost of food, and someone is unethically profiteering at the citizens' expense.

I hope that a well-known celebrity like him could reflect on his comments and think about the less fortunate and the less well off first, before publishing an article like that to add on the already magnified problem of food inflation, which is already a huge burden on the less well off. There are hordes of people who has to ration food among their family members because their salaries are not increasing with the ludicrous rise in food and hawker prices, and not everyone has the good fortune to enjoy the good life of tasting good food all around the world without worrying about the ridiculously high prices of hawker food.

After a few focus group sessions, many agreed that the BEST SOLUTION would be for the monopolistic hawker centre owners to REDUCE THEIR FOOD PRICES to a reasonable level, as they had increased during the commodities bull run previously, and you can rest assured, the citizens would be more than willing to help clear their trays. Nobody faults you, as a capitalistic business owner of these monopolies of hawker centres earning indecent amount of profits, but by making these profits at the expense of the poor, can you live with that? Even if you can, judgement day will come (Kiamat menjelang), and justice will prevail.

As a personal opinion, I feel the current route in financial markets is good, and I do hope it will prevail until public pressure would help bring down the prices down in Singapore as well as the rest of the world. However, in Singapore, where population remains high and continuing to increase, inflation and the existence of monopolies will always be a big problem for the masses. In a future post, we will analyse the cause and solutions of monopolies and profiteering parties and how it affects the man in the street in greater detail.

If you need help, or advice regarding a problem, do drop us a comment and we will endeavour to research and attempt to find a solution to the best we can. We are not wealthy, but we have the heart to make life better for the masses.

Your humble servant.

Singapore Government finally Guarantees all Bank Deposits

(Source: The Straits Times)


With reference to our earlier post "Good Pressure on the Singapore Government", the Singapore Government has finally decided to guarantee all bank deposits with immediate effect. In Singapore where almost everything is either a monopoly, duopoly or oligopoly, it is good to have some competition to ensure some equity.

This is a sharp turnaround from their declaration that there is no need to guarantee bank deposits just 2 days ago:
(Source: earthtimes.org )

This is because, as mentioned in our previous post, Singapore cannot afford to have foreign funds migrating to Hong Kong: It will only spell the beginning of the end for Singapore. By matching Hong Kong's move, what will be incurred from this guarantee will be higher banking operational costs, which will still be passed down to the us consumers, because banks, being profit oriented entities, are not going to absorb costs for the masses (More details on everything you wanted to know about what happens behind the scenes in the banks, in our earlier post "MAS Speaks up: What Investors Need to Beware").

We will analyse rising costs and inflation and how it affects the man in the street in our future post. Meanwhile, please do leave your comments or email us should you have any issues that affect the average man.

Your humble servant.

References:
The Straits Times
Good Pressure on the Government
earthtimes.org
MAS Speaks Up: What Investors Need to Beware

Why the increases despite Worldwide Recession?

(Source: The Straits Times)
WORLD STOCK MARKETS ARE PLUNGING
DOW JONES DROP BELOW 10,000 MARK
NIKKEI DROPS BELOW 10,000 MARK
STI DROPPED TO 2,000
OIL PRICES PLUMMETED TO LOW of 86.03.
AUSTRALIA, CHINA, SOUTH KOREA AND TAIWAN CUTS INTEREST RATES.

World markets & interest rates are seeing record falls but
what happens in Singapore?

Singtel INCREASES its phone charges.
(Source: The Straits Times)

Singapore Government INCREASES Electricity Tariffs.

According to the report, Mr Tharman mentioned "price of electricity has risen much less than oil prices", but according to the facts, oil prices from Oct and Nov last year ranges from $80 - $90 which is similar to what the oil price right now, so the increase is not justifiable.
Citizens of Singapore are welcome to analyse the facts and figures here .

A silver lining would be STARHUB, who has done the community a service by providing free services rather than increase prices like Singtel. At times like this, the Government should be working to reduce inflation via reducing cost of land, property, transportation, energy costs and food costs instead of increasing it. (We all understand the need to boost the Government reserves due to the falling financial markets wiping out huge percentage of equity of sovereign wealth, hedge and private equity funds, but please, not at the expense of the man in the street).

At Justice Bao Gong, we welcome ALL constructive COMMENTS. Please do bookmark us, and forward this blog to your friends so that everyone can benefit from the articles. If you do know of a topic that affects the man in the street, do email us or drop us a comment. We will endeavour to research the topic and post it for the benefit of all.

Your humble servant.