Me: Here are 6 ugly facts about Singaporeans' incomes | Singapore Business Review
"1. Real growth in average monthly household income per member increased for all residents in 2012; poor households suffered a decline in incomes.
2. Cost of living has increased, eroding the purchasing power of savings.
3. Inequality has increased.
4. Indebtedness has increased.
5. Poor retirement adequacy.
6. Other marginalised groups are at risk of impoverishment"
A: The reality is that there is a list of questionable information with regard to data provided from all sources. The limitations of the data published are not stated, not to expect on it being exhaustive. The relationship of information creates understanding which is really what is needed for people to make choices. Yet given the limited time for these endeavors many people are incapable to having studied the epistemology of data collection, question their reasoning for being there, its usefulness and the reason to whom it was written for and the expected reaction. It is therefore redundant, useless and worthless discussion and it is because of this, the intelligent Proletariat ( from the proliteraii )is thus reacting to their sub conscious identification to policy from previous misgivings given the lack of information and its directive in the management of resources fort he country. Scholars who leisurely do little work and are for the most stuck in schools ( from scholarii ) lead leisurely lives , and in many aspect continue to do so having little practical experience.It is thus for that reason, especially those fostered by the state from their unknown bearing be especially pliant lest their privilege be removed as they are incapable of surviving in the realities of open market competition. There is neither advantage or disadvantage in solving social issues but maintaining their status quo as they are not required to maintain their private enterprise or environment to foster improvement . For such individuals ( Scholarii )to attempt to do anything for public service comes at great risk to their standards of living and even if the system were to collapse they are no worse from where they begin. It is thus that has led to such problems and diversions in direction and implementation of an economy and state which was once focused on the improvement of every individual , diverging the very social fabric. It is my hope that such divergence will be resolved in a conscientious manner and not merely whitewashed forgetting the many peoples who are made irrelevant by a segment of people who in the name of civil service are irrelevant.
The writer may choose to add while after 2012 even though the ; still allows a logical and grammatically consistent sentence as a valid substitute.
Me: So in conclusion we cannot know anything and we cannot trust anyone, including the government. The report used government statistics, incidentally.
A: If government does not know government how does anyone know. Business does not know government , nor do the people. If you ask Government in all its part on its grand strategy they are most likely to tell you it is a secret, because it is sure proof that it is a secret to them. Afterall it is only in times of war, or a great national mishap that the usage of resources can come to a consensus. Of course this view in not merely my own but from rather intelligent speculation having a lack of confirmation. Either that or administrations are possessing a strategy which is unsupportable because of a lack of resource, or merely having a strategy to being perceived to having a strategy. The needs are many, the objectives unclear and the cost and resources doubtful. It is for this reason there is little need to cast doubt on such institutions as the doubt is naturally plentiful if given timely scrutiny.
Me: So in your book the only type of entity that can be right is a government?
A: Noone is right, especially a government because it is incapable of knowing what is right, even more a government elected by the people since if the people are incapable of knowing what is right. But to go further, perhaps we should consider knowing what is true, what is accurate , what is efficient and effective. Yet in such matters, perhaps even government does not know what peoples want or seek for; or even the very will of the people. So given so, how can it be that the only type of entity that can be right be a government. Perhaps it is as likely that the last type of entity to know what is right is a government.
Me: So as I said earlier "in conclusion we cannot know anything and we cannot trust anyone"
A: That would be insanity, you should at least trust yourself.
Me: "Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once...
Often in my dreams I am convinced of just such familiar events – that I am sitting by the fire in my dressing-gown – when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! Yet right now my eyes are certainly wide open when I look at this piece of paper; I shake my head and it isn’t asleep; when I rub one hand against the other, I do it deliberately and know what I am doing. This wouldn’t all happen with such clarity to someone asleep.
Indeed! As if I didn’t remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while asleep! As I think about this more carefully, I realize that there is never any reliable way of distinguishing being awake from being asleep.
This discovery makes me feel dizzy, which itself reinforces the notion that I may be asleep! Suppose then that I am dreaming – it isn’t true that I, with my eyes open, am moving my head and stretching out my hands. Suppose, indeed that I don’t even have hands or any body at all. "
- Meditations on First Philosophy / Rene Descartes
In other words, we cannot trust ourselves
A: Choice of delusion and the level of acceptance of being deluded from an imperfect and flawed model from individual world view. Welcome to reality, reality from choice and by choice.
Me: I think you just contradicted yourself
A: You implied you are mad, I cannot be contradicted by someone who quotes Descartes and implied madness on himself. And since I do not subscribe to your reality I cannot have contradicted myself. However, you are free to your irrationality and your irrational view, even if you think that you are right when you are wrong.
B: The one thing I always tell my students is to avoid the 'there is no absolute truth' fallacy, as that would mean asserting an absolute truth. :D