» The smugness of ignorance I: Fact check in aisle 14, please « e pur si muove - 智に働けば角が立つ;情に棹させば流される

AcidFlask: It may surprise you that we both want the same thing: for Singapore to succeed in become a world-class location for quality R&D. I assume we also share the same desire that the taxpayers’ dollars alloted for that purpose are well spent. Among other things, I just do not see how making 3.8 the only criterion achieves that purpose.

Philip Yeo: I have been paying taxes since 1970.

My taxes per year easily fund at least 2 BS students for their 3 years of overseas studies.

You have not worked one dayu and have yet to pay one cent of tax. Right?

Stop pontificating.

AcidFlask: Wrong. In the US, I pay the relevant income, property, municipal and utility taxes. In Singapore, I pay GST on all my relevant Singapore expenditures just like everyone else [Ed: This is something that is often forgotten - GST is also a tax. Maybe this is why they're shifting to indirect taxes]. I paid estate taxes. And let’s not forget national service.

May I also remind you that your own scholarship awards and your salary as a civil servant over all these years ultimately came (and still come) from other taxpayers’ dollars. Are all the taxes you have paid sufficient to pay your own wages?


The Chairman sounds like my brother in law. Maybe they teach all civil servants to argue the same way.