Movement for change Reduce cost of living
Singapore has perhaps the highest cost of living in the world. 

The government tries to give subsidies to low income people to help them cope with the high cost of living, such as the cost of education and health care. 

A better approach is to implement measures to slow down the increase in the cost of living. 

The prevailing thinking is that market competition will be a good way to bring down cost. But economists have explained that it may not work due to  "market failure". 

What are the ways to keep cost low? I suggest the following steps:

a) Abolish GST. This will reduce cost by more than 7%, as it will remove the cost to business of administering GST

b) Provide low rental to certain businesses to bring down their operating cost, e.g. clinics, hawker stalls, child care centers, transport.

c) Impose fee guidelines that can be adjusted yearly based on the cost of doing business. It is easy for the state to collect data on the business costs and work out the reasonable fees. This is still market based, but address the issue of market failure. 

It is possible for the government to reduce the cost of living for the citizens. They only need to adopt a different approach to the current one of relying on the market. 

Tan Kin Lian

Vote - do you agree with my suggestion to reduce the cost of living? 

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