Thursday, May 17, 2012

Welcome To Hotel Singapore

As Bloomberg reported: “Renouncing your citizenship well in advance of an IPO is ‘a very smart idea’ from a tax standpoint," quoting University of Michigan international tax law professor Reuven Avi-Yonah. By moving to Singapore, co-founder of Facebook Eduardo Saverin will avoid paying at least US$67 million (S$85 million) in American taxes when Facebook launches its initial public offering. And how did Saverin make his first millions? Mark Zuckerberg described Saverin like this: “My friend who wants to sponsor [Facebook] is head of the investment society. Apparently insider trading isn’t illegal in Brazil so he’s rich lol.”

We don't know how Ma Chi, the PRC driver of the Ferrari 599 GTO that killed a taxi driver and his passenger, made his millions, only how he started making money at age 18. Instead of dwelling on how they will cope with losing a husband and a father, it was curious to read his surviving kin flaunting his material acquisitions on this earth: “Mr Ma’s wife, known only as Madam He, told Wanbao that her husband had bought a $3 million condominium in the East Coast and a $400,000 BMW. The Ferrari was a $1.8 million limited edition car that he bought for his 30th birthday last year.” Would anyone really want that kind of an epitaph? Maybe the blame should be on Deng Xiaopeng, who did tell his people, "To be rich is glorious."

Ma was reported to be applying for his Singapore permanent residency. Saverin is a PR and has lived in Singapore since 2009. But his spokesman said that although he plans to live in Singapore "for an indefinite period of time", he is not applying for Singapore citizenship after giving up his United States passport. So what kind of citizens were the planners aiming for when they handed out the application forms?

That's just it, isn't it - Scandinavian Fredrik Haren's “best place in the world to be creative”. Singapore is the destination of choice for their one-night stands, to juice up on their "creativity", and then hop on to the next port of call. We have our own share of these cosmopolitan types, who have the credit cards to jet to other countries and sample the delights over there. But nation building is about the stayers, most of which are the heartlanders. The people who will be around to look after the baby boomers who have already done their part to build the economy. The people who will be around to bear arms and defend our country when the time comes to repel the invaders.

Sure there is creativity, the wrong kind that builds casinos and sea front bungalows for those refugees from high income tax regimes. Not the kind that builds affordable housing, and healthcare for an aging population. Billions pledged to the IMF, but pittance allocated to encourage our women to raise kids. And there's the creative accounting, which is probably causing one Christopher Balding to lose his hair, trying to reconcile the total increase in debt and the total government surpluses with the purported amount of assets under management. Perhaps that's why the old geezer said we are not yet a nation, he was just building a hotel all along.

24 comments:

  1. Ma Chi died in his red shoes, red shirt and in his red car.
    He will come back as a gloriously rich ghost no doubt.
    The pressure is quick coming in labeling citizens as xenophobes.
    Wait till they read one from a PRC netizen that said "Ma Chi deserves to die. And he did a good thing taking along a jap with him.."

    Gee..talk about misplaced nationalism and xenophobia.
    The day when Singaporeans stopped raising their objections to the liberal migration policies of this govt is the day Motel SG is open for business.

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  2. Pro Alien Politicians.
    They know the price of everything.
    And the value of nothing.

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  3. LKY is lecturing on Forbes, tolling warming bells to other countries re danger of declining birth rates. No where did he say he stand corrected on his past foolish policy.
    In due time, his son can turn his vision of 1st world country to 1st world hotel.
    Should heed the writings on the wall when they spent $1billion importing foreign plants and solar-powered these super trees everywhere, while the real garden in Bt Brown cost nothing and are super rich with history. Even those plants are not spared, what more, rooted humans.

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  4. the evil-isation of lky and cronies.

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  5. //..he is not applying for Singapore citizenship after giving up his United States passport. //

    Kid who? Throw him the "N" word he will speed to Malaysia or ANZ in no time.
    A man who will unfriend USA for tax reason, will not hesitate to unfriend you for (insert whatever) reasons when it doesn't suit him anymore.

    Besides, more wealth can be created in illegal insider trading in brazil!

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  6. Tattler,
    the old geezer may have come to terms that it's alot easier to run Spore like a hotel than as a country in the long run, especially when he has a son with hardly any talent or another way of putting it, good-for-nothing.

    Also it is becoming harder to own a country these days, unless you are Kim Jr. So the old geezer had it figured out that it's best for Lee Jr to own and manage a hotel.
    But from the way things have unfolded, it seems Lee Jr is having a really hard time managing our so called Hotel Singapore....LOL

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  7. I like that reference to building Singapore as a "hotel ". A SIN Hotel...... No wonder, someone keep referring to that City-State....

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  8. I think lay got it all wrong. the un is worried about over population, now we are at 7 billions and growing. So the low birth rate may be good for us. Doesn't he k ow that world resources are limited and there are other creatures besides us ?

    The more I hear fom him, the less I think of him. Period.

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  9. Sorry , it should be lky not lay, auto corrected by iPad. Sorry.

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  10. Hey, I got a feeling ma chi''s wife was secretly glad that he died: "that bastard was having a fling and he deserved it!". Especially since she would inherit all the money...

    Well, I am just glad that you wrote this piece. Nation building is more than just GDP; it is about people coming together with their heartware and putting money where their heart is. PAP either got it so wrong, or they are plainly looking out after their own interests.

    Looking at how PAP coverts the likes of MaChi and Saverin, you bet it is the latter.

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  11. It is more like a motel for a short time, not quite a tourist class type. Locals get scre**d quick time for a small fee. Guests comes and goes and nobody bothers to clean up after their act. Motel owner/pimp, hands out room keys (SP, EP etc) like nobody's business. It's a thriving business, if you don't do it, your next door motel will. Shut up and continue to get scre**d.

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  12. Which is why this is Singapore Inc., all concepts of nationalism or any other behaviour rules may as well be replaced with an employee handbook of rules and regulations.

    And that trumpeting of protecting the sovereignty of a nation? Pure BS. Dying to protect the assets of a large corporation more like.

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  13. And now the DPM has got words out to TP to nail all would be speedsters. Be carefull while on the road now. The TPs will get every chance to clamp down the locals and collect $$$$. All because of this one rich foreign imports FTs.

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    Replies
    1. He's quick on that becoz there's $$$ for IRAS. But ask him what he's planning to do to ensure PRC drivers have qualified technicality and knowledge to drive on road??!! Nada...

      Delete
  14. Free porridge.
    Free hearing aids.
    What more do you want?
    3 free meals in a hawker centre, a food court or a restaurant?

    Free porridge.
    Free hearing aids.
    Is this "inclusive" enough for you yet?
    "An Inclusive Society in the next 10 Years."
    Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam

    Free porridge.
    Free hearing aids.
    Are the economic benefits of our meritocratic economic policies "trickling down" fast enough for you yet?
    Actually, our meritocracy is called "trickle down economics" by the rest of the world.
    An old idea dating back to 1890.

    So Sinkies.
    Free porridge.
    Free hearing aids.
    Is this enough "Swiss standard of living" for you or not?


    SOURCES
    --------
    http://www.todayonline.com/Hotnews/EDC120415-0000012/An-inclusive-society-in-the-next-10-years

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics

    http://www.news.gov.sg/public/sgpc/en/media_releases/agencies/micacsd/speech/S-20091105-1

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  15. We are zenophobes, champion grumblers, losers etc. Looks like we are done for.Did`nt Devan Nair complain that he was the subject of a campaign he described as "give a dog a bad name and hang him"?

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  16. All those riches everywhere you see in Singapore at the surface is an illusion! Just get this feeling that Singapore is 'bleeding' in some ways. Every year, some of our brightest choose to migrate. What comes in are mostly the economic refugees who are using this as a transitional or 'parking lot' before they go to their ultimate destination. Singapore is just like a 'high class prostitute' marketing/packaging itself as some kind of 'good stuff' in trying to attract those very rich but mostly low moral ones.

    Is this the Singapore that heartlanders wish and vote for?

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  17. Even my malaysian friend agreed that miw are greedy lot, They are definitely going back for retirement as housing , groceries, transport and healthcare are either cheaper or subsidized in Malaysia.

    He is also hoping the WP will win big the BE.

    Foreigners are not stupid , see ! I hope the 60% wake up soon !

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  18. My friend told me that a friend of his who happens to be a PRC PR working as a GRO at a local spa is trying to apply for citizenship by declaring an income of S$80K to the Iras in the hopes to get a better chance at it. Just wonder what kind of foreign talent is this that our Govt tells us that we desperately need ?

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    Replies
    1. You need PRC GRO at local spa to service Rich PRCs clients like Ma Chi types, or the Gambling PRCs at the Casinos.
      That's the trade offs when you decide to build casinos, not 1 but 2.
      All the paraphernalia activities that comes with the territory.

      Delete
  19. "...Perhaps that's why the old geezer said we are not yet a nation, he was just building a hotel all along...."

    SPOT ON !

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  20. One more joining the millionaire's club here, another bites the dust. Do we need their millions here - they don't create wealth or jobs for us, but only raise the cost of living.

    We are just a half-way house with very low taxes.
    Soon even Sin Hotel will belong to them. Our womenfolk may well end up as maids and prostitutes in our own country.

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  21. This article from Guardian sums it well.

    "Perhaps the rest of us should care. Not because these people and companies lack even a shred of loyalty to the nations that helped make them what they are. We should care because the rest of us, ultimately, bear the tax burdens the new global elite shirks."

    More like US quitters is SG's stayers? Don't count on it.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/17/eduardo-saverin-tax-free-global-citizenship

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  22. Eduardo Saverin will be popping champagne on Friday for his new found IPO wealth (much to the courtesy of Mark) and his successful dodging of US tax. That's the kind of foreign talents we want.

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