DriveAllDay
Well-Known Member
Re: Fairer Way To Bid For COEs
I can't stop you from stretching the scope of the discussion further and further, and making assumptions about my stand, so I will end this discussion with this post.
On road pricing inefficiencies, which part of my original post did you not understand. I did offer suggestions - you may disagree with them, but not say unsubstantiated. The number of likes on that post showed at least a few people thought the points made some sense.
Neither did I mention anywhere in my posts that we should aspire to be like other countries - your words, not mine. But since you mention this - take a good hard look at hong kong. No COE, no ERP, no tax surcharges, no OMV/PARF, about half the number of taxis per capita than our country. Yet traffic is smoother, buses go everywhere, taxis are always available. HK approached the problems the hard way - systematically refining the infrastructure. Singapore took the easier way of taxing and pricing to steer demand, and is now playing catch up in fixing the infrastructure shortfall. I had personal conversations with our minister - even he admitted to this oversight the last few years, at least in private.
No where in my posts did I mention that current tax code is bad - I just disagree with you that Singapore is a low tax country.
A low marginal tax rate reduces the tax burden of the top income earners. I didn't say in absolute term they are not paying more than the poor, just relatively they pay less than under a higher marginal tax environment. As a result, the balance tax revenue is shared out across the population. You choose what you want to read.
No, I don't think the arguments put forth by many are populist opinions. These arguments were put forth by people who are facing difficulties, who felt left behind. I may not agree with their views - but I don't call them unthinking.
Finally, when I mention the word brainwash, I used the word "we" - a general term that first point to myself. I really did believe we had it best tax wise till i take a hard look at total tax. I dont attempt to put a label on anyone. When you used the word populist, unthinking, you used "you" - a personal criticism and attack. This runs through many parts of your posts where you label people who disagree with you. Big difference.
04M3;857644 said:
I can't stop you from stretching the scope of the discussion further and further, and making assumptions about my stand, so I will end this discussion with this post.
On road pricing inefficiencies, which part of my original post did you not understand. I did offer suggestions - you may disagree with them, but not say unsubstantiated. The number of likes on that post showed at least a few people thought the points made some sense.
Neither did I mention anywhere in my posts that we should aspire to be like other countries - your words, not mine. But since you mention this - take a good hard look at hong kong. No COE, no ERP, no tax surcharges, no OMV/PARF, about half the number of taxis per capita than our country. Yet traffic is smoother, buses go everywhere, taxis are always available. HK approached the problems the hard way - systematically refining the infrastructure. Singapore took the easier way of taxing and pricing to steer demand, and is now playing catch up in fixing the infrastructure shortfall. I had personal conversations with our minister - even he admitted to this oversight the last few years, at least in private.
No where in my posts did I mention that current tax code is bad - I just disagree with you that Singapore is a low tax country.
A low marginal tax rate reduces the tax burden of the top income earners. I didn't say in absolute term they are not paying more than the poor, just relatively they pay less than under a higher marginal tax environment. As a result, the balance tax revenue is shared out across the population. You choose what you want to read.
No, I don't think the arguments put forth by many are populist opinions. These arguments were put forth by people who are facing difficulties, who felt left behind. I may not agree with their views - but I don't call them unthinking.
Finally, when I mention the word brainwash, I used the word "we" - a general term that first point to myself. I really did believe we had it best tax wise till i take a hard look at total tax. I dont attempt to put a label on anyone. When you used the word populist, unthinking, you used "you" - a personal criticism and attack. This runs through many parts of your posts where you label people who disagree with you. Big difference.
