Hi every one! Let’s beat the same dead horse again with the same stick!
Let’s take a look at the chart above. The chart shows the average income per household member in Singapore. The numbers are from Singstats, feel free to go over there and check out the other interesting numbers the Singapore government has released.
So what is wrong with this chart? Let’s start with the glaring fact that the bottom 10% of Singaporeans earn only a 4% (10 years ago they were making 5.4%) of what the richest 10% is making. Ok, I understand that in any society there is always a population of the less fortunate people who live in relative poverty and hardship. So let’s move on to the middle class, as in literally the average 50th percentile of the population.
They make $1,794 per month, including Employer CPF contributions. Assuming they are under 50, that means they make about $1,546 every month, minus the 20% CPF ($248), they take home about $1,298.
And the people below that 50th percentile line makes even less than that. No wonder the opposition has some die hard supporters who will vote for them just because they can.
Finally, let us examine the so called high fliers in this country. For a period of time I was pretty puzzled by the fact that it is not just the middle to lower class people who have much to say about how PAP runs the country, apparently a good number of people from the middle to upper class (70-90th percentile, by income) have a lot to say as well. I couldn’t really figure out the reason. I mean if you make $5,000 a month you must be pretty damn pleased with yourself right? You are like the top 20% of the Singapore population, and by definition, the elites.
Until you realize that the very next 10%, the true elites of the country, makes more than double the amount you make and the gap seems bigger than you imagined. Their income increased by $4,742 from 2000 to 2011, while yours increased by $1,906. Same country, different pay out.
No wonder people are pissed. Maybe it’s time to revise the tax rate for the top 10%. How about changing the income tax cap from 20% to something more reasonable, like 30%?
