Give You a Drumstick, Take Back a Chicken

Couple of days ago wifey cooked a dish of soy sauce chicken for our dinner. It was her first ever attempt and I was pleasantly surprised.

Though the chicken was good, it is not the main point of this post. However it coincides with what I have been thinking about these few days.

Somehow in our current society, the adage "Give you a drumstick but take back a chicken" seems to be taking shape judging from the news from recent years.

From the removal of certain goodies to the increment of certain charges, there have been several such news in these 2 years so much so that I can't help but took notice.

For the general public,

1) Water tax increased by 30% (15% from July 2017 and 15% from July 2018).

2) Electricity tariffs increased by 6.3% for first quarter of this year.

3) Service and conservancy charges (S&CC) increased from June 2017 at 15 town councils.

For vehicle owners and those looking to own vehicles,

1) Vehicle registration and other related fees increased from December 2017. The former increased by 57% in one shot.

2) Public car park parking charges increased from December 2016 to $0.60 for half an hour and $1.20 for an hour.

3) Season parking charges increased from December 2016 to $110 for sheltered car parks and $80 for surface car parks.

4) Parking fee hike from December 2016 for some car parks at peak hours.

5) Not to mention the numerous ERP fee hikes such as this.

For couples waiting to get married,

1) Marriage fee increased from $26 to $42 from July 2017 for Singaporeans.

For parents,

1) PAP Community Foundation (PCF) and My First Skool, the two biggest pre-school operators in Singapore are raising their fees in January 2018.

For the elderlies,

1) The public transport council has scrapped the $40 monthly unlimited travel pass for our seniors above the age of 60.

How much can the seniors travel? Why the need to do this to them?

Meanwhile...

1) Travellers MAY soon have to pay extra fees to fly out of Changi airport. This is to help fund the new Terminal 5, scheduled to complete in around 2030. What? Really?

2) Guys, the news doesn't ends here. I'm sure most of you would have already heard about the possibility of GST hike. Brace yourself.

Very soon our plate of char kway teow is going to cost $8 in hawker centres?