no one quarrels with dipping into Singapore reserve...extraordinary/unprecedented times require extraordinary measures...Obama said it, Kevin Rudd said it, but I guess no plagiarism there...
not totally bought-in on whether job credits is innovative...something is innovative if it is a new way to solve a problem...job credits is new thinking no doubt just not sure if it solves the problem...NTUC is lately adamant against CPF cut...Lim Boon Heng earlier said it is across the board and penalise workers in companies that do well despite recession...Lim Swee Say said when rebutting Low Thia Khiang "does WP want Job Credits or 9% CPF cuts"...Low is seasoned enough to say he don't want both..haha...job credits is labelled as "smart bomb"...not quite sure why it is smart bomb when it is also across the board for all S'pore and PR workers with CPF account? if the purpose is to lower costs for employers (supposedly to temporarily keep jobs but as many have said why would employer pay $7500 and wait 3 months to get back $900 credit if he don't need the workers?), so what is the difference as far as employers is concerned whether it is 9% CPF cut or job credits? the only difference is whether the employers' savings come from $4.5b job credits or from workers CPF...but if we cut workers CPF then the $4.5b can be spent in a targetted way for specific group of workers or industries or income level, so higher income workers above $4.5k/month will have effective pay cut (from CPF cut but better than lose job) but then the $4.5b pool from reserves can be more targeted to help either certain low income group (workfare etc) or certain targeted industries...why is job credit a smart bomb when it is "one size fits all"? taxpayers don't want to subsidize already profitable companies nor companies which will fail anyway after getting "temporary" job credit bailouts for 1 year?
of course there could be other reasons for not touching CPF-maybe it will trigger property loans repayment default etc...but those reasons maybe should be investigated and communicated...maybe messy to have temporary 1 year 9% CPF cut vs one-off job credit scheme (hmm..not sure about that)...maybe part of job credits are for government linked agencies so go back to consolidated accounts anyway but unlikely that is big % of $4.5b?
though many brilliant minds (scholars) have gone into job credits and government as always have studied thoroughly before introducing an idea, still no harm to listen whether WP or PAP or others if there are other views, considerations, solution, or at least revisit issue and explain better...
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