Dear TRS,
I want to share with you one little known reason for why the cost of living in Singapore is so high. It has to do with one of the "business friendly" policies the PAP has put in place: the TRIPS.
TRIPS agreement mean Trade Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Rights.
So basically it mean that when Singapore government sign this treaty with business corporates,the rich lucrative business corporations will move into Singapore and use it as a base/hub to do business here.
Since their business intellectual property rights are protected here by PAP the business corporates enjoy government protection and monopolisation of the industry they do business here in.
The Singapore government will then uphold their part on this treaty and outlaw/suppress all form of piracies and generic business models here that infringe on their investors intellectual property copyrights.
Among one of these industry is the pharmaceutical industry which contribute up to SGD $19 billions in the year 2008 alone which work out to be 7.6% of Singapore's total manufacturing output !
Singaporeans this is BIG BUSINESS for the PAP do you know how this TRIPS agreement affect you in your daily life?
(1)Well for starter you cannot buy fake Pradas,LVs and pirated DVDs in Singapore.
(2)If you want to start up business you have to made sure your business ideas does not run foul of the copyrights laws here. And most likely you have to pay a bomb for a franchise license to start up a business here.
This directly have a very adverse effect on local creativity and entrepreneurship here in this country.
That's why you see the best and brightest among the population here are migrating away to seek greener pastures and causing Singapore to face a massive brain drain/talent loss throughout the decades.
(3)And in local healthcare industry many of the drugs that are use or issue here are expensive legitimate copyright drugs of the pharmaceutical firms that manufacture and distribute these drugs here.
The local hospitals and medical industry cannot import and use a wide range of cheaper alternative generic drugs/medicines here unlike Malaysia/Thailand/Cambodia etc since it infringe on the intellectual property rights of the pharmaceutical firms here and will eat away at their profits.
This explain why healthcare is so expensive here in Singapore.
The PAP government want to earn the vast economic contributions these lucrative industries are giving them by providing monopolisation for these capitalist business investors here but are stingy and unwilling to cough out the the vast profit margins out to spend on social cost and balance the uneven playing ground in society.
Vote out PAP for yourself,parents and children sake.
Keith
TRS Contributor