lkk@teddy.UUCP (10/21/85)
Singapore is one of a handful of southeast Asian countries which are often pointed to as "model" free-market economies. President Reagan recently praised the Premier of Singapore for the free market and low tax rate theory. A column in today's Wall Street Journal op-ed page tells another story. Every employee in Singapore is required to contribute 25% of his salary to something called (I think) the General Provident Fund. Every employer is required to match this amount. Thus, this tax accounts for 40% of labor costs in Singapore. The General Provident Fund is a universal pension fund for Singapore. But it is also used as a source of descrecionary funds for "improving society." This includes building a new airport and providing various other types of infrastructure which has helped account for Singapore's 8% growth rate in recent years. BTW, the author of the column Maxine Kirkpatrick, was an economic conservative as far as I could tell. -- Sport Death, Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. - Helen Keller