Linguistic Errata
Oh my God! I should have written "whizzing" instead for the swishing of traffic along the highway. "Wheezing" should have been reserved for my cough the past three weeks and even today, I am still coughing if only just a little.
Maybe I should be "wagging my finger" at others rather than just "pointing my finger" when I speak of keeping one's house in order.
Oh well, there you have it.
Pooh Pooh 1%
Of course the 1% point increase in the CPF rate of return is much appreciated and it is further compounded too?
And it is no mean feat to plough $700 million dollars back into the kitty right? At today's prices and today's inflation rate, that is.
Wouldn't any investor expect at least a 25% minimal return on their savings though? Even a doubling or tripling of their investment.
Upgrade Because Of A Need To, Not Upgrade For Upgrade Sake
Sure some people like to upgrade their flats. However, sometimes it is because of the growing needs of the kids for instance.
Like some people lease out their rooms because they need to. Not because they happen to have spare rooms and try to make some money out of it.
If Wages Can't Keep Up, At Least Let Our Investment Do
I think it all boils down to this : the cost of living has simply outstripped the increase in wages.
The latter doesn't keep up with the former and that is why people are finding their savings being slowly but surely depleted.
A Fine Example Of How Much Cost Has Spiralled
Just look at the price of a 3-room HDB flat then and now.
We used to live in one in Toa Payoh. It costs only several thousand dollars. That was in 1972. Today its price is almost two hundred thousand dollars or more.
Has the basic principle of affordable housing for the masses been abandoned?
Have wages correspondingly increased?
If nothing else, at least if our investment can keep up with the cost of living, then our savings stand a good chance of being intact and sufficient.
Foreign Or Local And Younger Competition
Mind you one reason why brother got retrenched must be the pressure on costs on the part of the company. Costs of manufacturing in Singapore, cost of wages, competition, cheaper foreign labor imports or even a younger local labor substitute.
This is the same company he has been working with for a decade and a half. What does that speak of loyalty, long service and so on?
The same reason of cheaper and younger foreign or local labor susbstitutes apply at the workfront of both my brothers-in-law.
Legislation Can Only Do So Much
Legislating that a company re-offers a job (any kind of job, not necessarily the same one the employee was working on) to an employee aged 62 remains just that - an offer.
The conditions or job offered may not be as favorable anymore and the old employee has to decide if it is worth his while to take it up.
Living Near Each Other But Not Together
Yes I would like to live near my kin but certainly not under the same roof.
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