There's greenery all around. It's quite pleasing to the eye.
When I come back from overseas. I take a Grab or cab back, and I see the rows of trees along the PIE or ECP.
It's pretty...
If you ask Singaporeans, do they enjoy the trees, I think many people would say it's nice.
Now, let's ask again. If you could pay 5-10% less tax and we sacrifice those trees.
How many Singaporeans would want to pay less tax?
I think a lot more people wouldn't want those trees.
All these greenery in Singapore has a cost. Maintenance costs money. It comes from our tax dollars.
Ok, maintenance also creates jobs and creates more tax dollars so there's some additional benefit to having these trees.
Similarly, if you look around your estate, there's trees and parks.
Now what if we get rid of those trees and you can pay less conservancy charges?
Would you prefer to have less trees? Cos trees shed their leaves and this means we have to hire more cleaners to sweep those leaves.
My estate has one of the highest C&C charges around.
Currently, there's no choice. The government decides that they want trees, beside our roads, around our HDB estates, etc. And of course we all "enjoy" it. We take it for granted. BUT, most of the time, we don't realize, we ARE paying for all these.
Look around your house. What extra stuff do you have that's unnecessary?
My neighbours have come to my place and said it was "sterile", like there's no heart in my house.
It's true.
Others have said that it's like a rental flat.
That's true as well.
The house was set up to be efficient. Low cost in running. Good and acceptable enough for me to live in.
Of course there's no right and wrong with this. One can make their house like a castle and feel like they are living in a Victorian castle, or it can be sparse and look like an AirBnB.
It's a choice.
Whether we make the best choices or not, it a question mark.
Cos if we always thought about dollar and cents, then we wouldn't want all those trees around Singapore and probably other aspects as well, like parks and events.
Although I do wonder, if we had a vote, would we choose to pay less tax and C&C charges without our current greenery, or would most Singaporeans choose to pay more tax and "enjoy" the view.
I agree that some public good are probably necessities instead of good to have.
For example, I think street lamps are necessities. Brightly lit areas tend to have lower crime rates. So even if I had the option to pay less tax to reduce the number of street lamps, I'd still choose to pay taxes to have a good number of lit streets.
Anyway I'm getting draggy.
Look around your house. Admire what you have bought or renovated or decorated. Cos you paid for it. Don't just take it for granted. Admire it like the first day you moved into the place.
Similarly, admire the trees, go to parks, and other public services. Cos you also already paid for it, don't just take it for granted. They aren't FREE. People think that they are free, but they aren't. They have already been prepaid with your tax dollars.
If you paid for a gym membership, most people would want to make full use of the membership right?
So now, knowing that you paid for the parks and other public facilities, shouldn't you also make full use of all these paid "memberships"?
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