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08-04-2013, 08:40 AM
Thanks for the debate.
Some folks tend to think that the rich always mean "other people". Even the brain dead editor of the Straits Times refer to it as if he is not part of the rich gang too!
Let's take a look a closer look at SingStats to define rich. In 2011, the median household income should be between 5794 and 7032, 5794 being the median for 41st and 50th decile while 7032 being the median for the 51st and 60th decile. Assuming that each household has, on average, 2 working members, the average income of the these folks in the 51st to 60th decile would be around 3,500 (approx 3,000 if you exclude employers' CPF). Please remember by definition, anybody higher than the average is potentially contributing to the income gap! Therefore to "reduce" the income gap, we should increase the tax of anybody with monthly income of 3,000 or more?
The nation is up in flames over the overly broad definition of "rich". The govt went back to the drawing board and decided to just hit the truly rich, defined as income > SGD1,000,000 per year. With the assistance of the ISD, IRAS, etc. all the rich folks are rounded up in a school field. (My rough estimates are that there should be 1,000 or so of them, nice and easy to fit into a school field). After some tough negotiations, the rich folks decided to give up another 20% of their income, meaning that the top income tax bracket has just hit 40%, very similar to developed countries (Yay! We are now truly developed). Despite some of these @#$%^& rich guys diverting some income overseas, the tax collectors still managed to collect SGD240 million in additional tax, amounting to 240k per rich guy. We can now distribute the largesse to all the poor folks. But wait a minute, SGD240 million distributed to 120,000 poor households in the lowest decile is a mere SGD2,000 per year, less than 200 bucks per month. What a miserly govt?!
If you were the government, in order to raise sufficient funds to fund your social welfare programme, where would you draw the line?
Some folks tend to think that the rich always mean "other people". Even the brain dead editor of the Straits Times refer to it as if he is not part of the rich gang too!
Let's take a look a closer look at SingStats to define rich. In 2011, the median household income should be between 5794 and 7032, 5794 being the median for 41st and 50th decile while 7032 being the median for the 51st and 60th decile. Assuming that each household has, on average, 2 working members, the average income of the these folks in the 51st to 60th decile would be around 3,500 (approx 3,000 if you exclude employers' CPF). Please remember by definition, anybody higher than the average is potentially contributing to the income gap! Therefore to "reduce" the income gap, we should increase the tax of anybody with monthly income of 3,000 or more?
The nation is up in flames over the overly broad definition of "rich". The govt went back to the drawing board and decided to just hit the truly rich, defined as income > SGD1,000,000 per year. With the assistance of the ISD, IRAS, etc. all the rich folks are rounded up in a school field. (My rough estimates are that there should be 1,000 or so of them, nice and easy to fit into a school field). After some tough negotiations, the rich folks decided to give up another 20% of their income, meaning that the top income tax bracket has just hit 40%, very similar to developed countries (Yay! We are now truly developed). Despite some of these @#$%^& rich guys diverting some income overseas, the tax collectors still managed to collect SGD240 million in additional tax, amounting to 240k per rich guy. We can now distribute the largesse to all the poor folks. But wait a minute, SGD240 million distributed to 120,000 poor households in the lowest decile is a mere SGD2,000 per year, less than 200 bucks per month. What a miserly govt?!
If you were the government, in order to raise sufficient funds to fund your social welfare programme, where would you draw the line?