Singapore General Election 2016: Dangers of Populist Policies

Craig Kelly, an Australian federal politician (member of the Australian House of Representatives), shared the following comments about the dangers of adopting populist policies.

The Singapore electorate would do well to heed the consequences of voting with their emotions at the next General Election. Many opposition parties like the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Reform Party (RP), Singapore First (SingFirst) and the National Solidarity Party (NSP) are "buying votes" with the offer of free money. As the failure of the Greek economy proves, this is unsustainable in the long term.

THE GREEK TRAGEDY: MASSIVE SOCIALIST FAILURE

Make no mistake, the classic failure of Socialism is playing out in Greece right now. Put simply, Greece’s problem is that it has run out of "other people's money"....

No nation can continue to operate when almost 80% of the Government's budget goes to pay pensions and state wages - and where 10% of the nation’s entire economic output comprises pensions alone.

For too long Greece has headed down a ruinous political path of anti-market, collectivist and socialist policies - that have only guaranteed today's impoverishment; all based on the nonsensical premise that there is such a thing as a "free lunch" and the delusion that Keynesian stimulus will save the day.

And with the poison of Socialism having taken hold, and the economy falling into a fiscal abyss, has resulted in a spiral of decline - whereby the public elects more and more extreme politicians, so it was no surprise that at the last election in Greece, 52% voted for either Communists or neo-Nazis.

And the danger is that Greece, with a 25% unemployment rate, a third of its people living below the poverty line, 300,000 with no electricity, ATM’s running out money, and limits placed on what people can withdraw from banks - could likely respond to the failure of extreme-left Syriza Party by electing an even more extreme government.

The only way this Greek tragedy can be addressed is firstly by identifying socialism as the culprit in this massive public failure.

Secondly, there must be a condemnation of socialism and the failed politicians who made the sweeping promises to dishout "free stuff" they could not afford - all while they peddled the proven failed system of socialism.

Thirdly, a recognition that by recently electing an even more leftist and socialist government, that such a vote has only sped up the path to collapse.

There is no painless way out.

But rather than just kicking the can down the road, it might be best for the Greeks to go back to their old currency, with all the hardship that will involve - and rediscover the virtues of sound money, balanced budgets and implement a regulatory system that attracts foreign capital and encourages domestic enterprise – and they produce and export themselves out of this mess.

For everyday they delay, it will only result in a much more painful remedy being foisted upon all down the track.

But ultimately, the real threat of this Greek tragedy is to the global economy, in that we squander yet another valuable lesson from someone else's massive Socialist failure - and that other nations and politicians currently pushing socialist agenda's, promising more "free stuff" paid for by "other people's money" (including Australia’s Labor Party) will not be deterred or even slowed in the slightest by Greece's collapse.