Re: Warning: Suicide peak ahead for Singaporeans

Social Safety Net Determinants
I use to think that social safety net is only relevant or practised
effectively in states with a strong socialistic and communistic
doctrine but as I give a bit more leeway to the meaning of social
safety net to include activities of a philanthrophic, altruistic,
religious, political and philosophical origin, the heaven seems to
open before me.
Basal Dungeon Level/Poverty Line
My fundamental believe being that no matter how criminal, immoral or
inhumane a person might be, there exists in each of us an intrinsic
in-
culpulability to help lift a fellow being from a basal dungeon to an
acceptable level of survival as we each perceived it to be. The basal
dungeon level is not an absolute concept but a relative one. Many
economists and sociologists has attempted to define this as the
poverty line along monetary and quantitative lines. This is very
useful as it makes it possible to translate the concept into
actionable points in determining how help should be apportioned.
However, in distilling a concept into a quantitative illustration
some
important intrinsic qualitative elements are also removed in the
process. Firstly, the basal dungeon level is a micro concept that is
applicable on a personal or a monolithic social group rather than a
macro concept with wider and more polarized applicability. An elderly
wearing clothing consisting of a variety of patch work ( other than
the fashion statement of the day ) in a relatively well off suburb
like Rodeo Drive would most probably has reached beyond the basal
dungeon level in that community to warrant a helping hand be it a
contribution in terms of a coin drop of sort. However, in more
impoverished parts of Africa, such a person is very unlikely to be
offered help. Secondly, the concept is not the absolute or relative
social distance between the person in need and the potential helper.
It is not a absolute distance because a millionaire is unlikely to be
moved to help a middle class person athough the absolute distance can
be large, it is definitely not a charity case. Neither is a relative
distance applicable because relativity would require us to define
relative to what. Basal dungeon is basically a level that would
trigger one group or person to help the other as a result of a
conscience trigger. Thirdly, it is not a stable level that transcends
time and space as the level changes over time in line with changes in
the social political norms. However, the concept transcends time and
space as it is there from the time of recorded history till now and
not likely to vaporize into thin air in the foreseeable future.
Singapore
There is general believe that social safety belongs to the government
alone and not body else. However, there are enough evidence both
empirical and otherwise that this is not the case. I live in
Singapore
where the official ideology of socialist democrat is actually closer
to capitalistic democrat as the leadership has make no apology in
public that Singapore is a meritocratic practitioner in terms
dividing
the fruits of our labour. There is general perception that the social
safety net is very thin in Singapore and the government has made it
very clear to the populace that having seen the social safety net
framework degenerate the motivation to work and the economy,
Singapore
shall not follow in similar light. However, over the years as the
Singapore economy develops and accumulates fiscal surpluses to be in
a
position to afford some safety net, the government has over the years
especially during the tenure of Goh Chok Tong as prime minister,
dished out narrow and directed safety nets liken to a fishing by rods
and line rather than broad based ones like fishing with nets. I see
this as a deterministic shift in fundamental thinking as the
government slowly but surely start to acquire heart ware. Some of
these schemes includes the Medifund scheme to help the poor pay for
the cost of essential medical care, dollar for dollar matching
contribution to selected charities etc. One interesting means that
the
government has contributed to the social safety net in a less obvious
showing which is I think is a deliberate attempt is though the
innovative use of co-funded help schemes for various areas deemed to
be much greater in need like innovative structuring of health care
financing which might not be perfect but at least is affordable, of
fairly high quality and not a drag on the economy unlike in the US
where health care has become such a huge part of staff cost that it
is
a major factor affecting their economic competitiveness on a global
basis. These Singapore cases underlines the fact that social safety
net need not be narrowed to more direct transfer payments like
unemployment payments or absolute freebies like free health care,
education etc that more often than not lends itself to over
consumption. On the note that such narrow schemes leaves a lot
falling
through the crack, my thinking is that like line and rod fishing, it
is meant to bait and catch the more needful ones rather than a broad
based safety net that would able to cast a wider net but would also
end up with a lot of garbage in the process as well in the form of
non-
deserving recipients. Your choice.
Japan
In the case of Japan where I used to visit on a very frequent basis
in
my previous job where the visible governmental safety net is so thin
that it is as good as none. In addition, the certain pride that the
Japanese culture infuses into the work ethos makes it almost socially
not acceptable for the populace to even be seen to be consumers of
such safety net. In those years there during the early 1990s, there
is
a stark difference between Tokyo and New York as the streets are
relatively void of beggars and homeless people compared to New York.
It baffles me how was this possible with such a thin safety net. I
slowly begin to understand that job for life philosophy results in
less redundancies and retrenchments which I view is also a form of
safety net that is enacted by way of social norms rather than
governmental regulation. We can debate on end on the economic and
business poison that such a system can breed but no safety net is
without cost to the economy and society. One of the feature of the
TOPIX which is the de-facto securities exchange of Japan and the
largest in Asia, it has one of the lower beta compared to their
counterparts in the west and one of the reason is the complex web of
cross share holding between the giants of the economies call Zaibatsu
and their subsidiaries as well as a very centralist macro economic
planning by way of good coordination between the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry ( MITI ) that even the Zaibatsu
rarely go against MITI. One rare exception is Honda which was
persuaded by MITI to concentrate on motorcycles and reduce their
involvement in automobiles but has done almost the opposite.
Philanthrophy/GINI
Philanthrophy in terms of participation by percentage of the populace
as well as percentage of the GDP, US beats Europe by a large margin.
There are various studies done to explain this differential including
factors like how the GINI index which measures the distribution of
wealth, differentiating tax incentives for philanthrophy, old and new
money as Europe tend to have more old money compared to US, immigrant
society in US versus a more monolithic society in Europe. The factor
that stands out is that on a ideological level, Europeans seems to be
more socialistic but in practice on a personal level, US seems to put
money where their mouth is rather than paying lip service. In
response, the Europeans would argue that either the government is
doing such a good job or they have contributed to a large part
through
taxes ( which are not voluntary whereas philanthrophy is ) and there
so less need for private philanthrophy.
We all have a part though not always a deterministic one but a key
part in shaping social safety net for our society either on an
ideological or macro platform by our votes or privately on a personal
and group basis. Give it a thought went you next see someone
deserving
of help.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages
are
of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any
companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these
opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and
opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for
correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye
.

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