This is why SDP fights for a more equal society

[metalslug]

http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4298-this-is-why-sdp-fights-for-a-more-equal-society

This is why SDP fights for a more equal society
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Singapore Democrats

"The more unequal a society is, the worse the [social] problems get." That's what epidemiologists Richard Wilkenson and Kate Pickett say in their new book, The Spirit Level. The authors point out that inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives.

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[hokkienpeng]

http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4298-this-is-why-sdp-fights-for-a-more-equal-society

This is why SDP fights for a more equal society
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Singapore Democrats

"The more unequal a society is, the worse the [social] problems get." That's what epidemiologists Richard Wilkenson and Kate Pickett say in their new book, The Spirit Level. The authors point out that inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives.

The trouble is that an unequal society must, by definition, have people who are on the favorable side of the inequality. They would be the ones who benefit from the inequity &mdash; enjoying longer, healthier, happier lives, and in general all the upsides of an unequal society (e.g. cheap and powerless workers). Why should they give a damn whether the society as a whole has shorter, unhealthier, unhappier lives on average?

There may only be a very small handful of people who enjoy the upside (e.g. Kim Jong-Il and his cronies, Saddam Hussein and his cronies &mdash; who all lived like kings) with the vast majority living in absolute misery (e.g. the 3 million North Koreans who died of starvation, the 500,000 Iraqi children who perished as collateral effects of UN's sanctions) but as long as the small handful can convince enough people to keep them in power in exchange for a promise of passage to the better side of the unequal society, the status quo will remain.

Why do you think Lee Kuan Yew and his cronies can stay in power for so long? There are many more of us than there are of them. The problem is that too many of us are harboring hopes of becoming one of them some day.

It's easy to understand why the superscale civil servants and PSC scholars would support the PAP fervently. But why do the grassroot leaders and YPAP members &mdash; many of them not particularly well-off and have been hurt by the PAP's policies as much as anyone else &mdash; also prostrate 50 times a day to their PAP masters? The answer is clear: They hope that by supporting the PAP, they would be rewarded and moved to the PAP side of our unequal society.

The level of equality attainable by a society depends largely on the level of selflessness of its people. I doubt S'poreans would see much improvement in societal equality in their lifetime.