B1 wants to join me for cycling today. I told him about an article TRE and how a 50 plus man committed suicide because he cannot access $200K plus in his CPF account. This man is desperate as he has 2 school going kids and lost money on his business. He think if he is dead, his kids will have access to the CPF monies.
I told him something is wrong if the policy supposed to help citzens end up killing them. He says this man would have earn at least $6K/month. He is not managing his finances properly, there are missing information, etc. He feels that there are ways to solve the problems. However, my position is in Canada, no old folks need to clean table, collected rubbish or recyleables for pittance. The social welfare system make sure people are taken care of when they are old, infirm or poor health. In Singapore, you will be paying and paying then you die after you run out of money to pay for healthcare.
In a way, B1 think like PAP. I gave him the example of his mum's cousin who went to see his MP for help on credit card debts. The MP asked the cousin to go to the bank to negotiate. However, the bank only operates on working hours and the cousin is in a low level job that he will be fired if he takes time off. The MP will never understand and think the cousin is either stupid or not cooperative.
We are not a compassionate society. So many people who desperately needed help have to take extreme measure of killing themselves to solve their problems. In Canada, no one is desperate as the social security system will take care of all its citzens and landed immigrants. It is not a perfect system but Singapore should be more compassionate.
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