My type of humour

Every company in this country that has the word 'public' in its mission or name seems to think that the citizens are mindless minions. Forum replies never fail to have these "we-think-you-are-really-morons" style of roundabout English, and convoluted logic in the hopes that the supposedly mindless minions don't catch the real reason behind those 'transparent' policies.

Nov 30, 2006
The poor will benefit most from transport fare cap

I refer to Jason Chiam Chiah Sern's letter "Much to learn from HK public transport system" (ST, Nov 28) and SMRT's reply "Fare cap will benefit only few passengers" (ST, Sep 30).
The latter states that "less than one per cent of passengers pays a fare of $1.90 or more. Therefore, having a fare cap would benefit only a small proportion of passengers, while transferring the cost to others."
SMRT's reason for not having a fare cap like in other countries is somewhat illogical because the fact that less than one per cent pays more than $ 1.90 means that a fare cap would have very little impact on the other 99-plus per cent who may have to share "transferring the cost to others".
It goes against the basic principle of public transport, which is the sharing of costs, so that a minority will not be penalised, since public transport is a necessity for those who cannot afford private transportation.
The main reason why there is normally a fare cap in other countries is to protect the small number of needy, who may be affected most if there is no fare cap.
If we ask the other 99-plus per cent of Singaporeans, I believe they would not mind sharing the cost for the benefit of the needy among the "less than one per cent". Why not conduct a poll of Singaporeans?
In the "Report of the Committee on the Fare Review Mechanism" last year, it noted that average fares in Singapore were lower than in New York, London, and Hong Kong.
However, all these cities have fare caps and monthly passes, which Singapore does not have. The monthly pass recently introduced by SBS Transit is only for travel on SBS buses, and the price is high relative to other cities of the developed countries. Monthly passes in other cities are typically multi-modal or multi-operator, if there is more than one operator.
The reports also cited the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) 2003 data that the lowest 20 per cent and second quintile group of household income had average monthly household income of $1,279 and $2,651 respectively. However, the Department of Statistics (DOS) puts the two statistics at $795 and $2,059.
Why does the report's statistics differ from the DOS's?
How has this discrepancy impacted on the computations on the affordability of transport fares ?
Leong Sze Hian