“Why then do our middle classes feel so aggrieved and embattled? Are we spoiled complainers, ungrateful for how good we have going? Or is there something about our lived experience that speaks to a greater truth?” he asked.
SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post on Monday morning , Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim appeared to question Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s claim about middle-class Singaporeans facing a lower tax burden than in other countries.
He then began to outline the trade-offs to lower taxes and good public service, including having bigger class sizes in schools and parents paying for private tuition, long waiting times in public hospitals, and the social security system cutting families off at low-income levels. There are also other fees—“both real and hidden”—such as those charged for road usage and car ownership and rising land costs in public housing.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be mindful about how we spend our money. All I’m saying is that, truly, there isn’t any free lunch. We can’t really claim that we’ve a low tax burden—see!—so we must be well off, when we’re also being squeezed in so many other ways.”
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