Budget

Everytime the Budget announcement comes round, I will zero in on a specific number or statistic whilst poring over the newspaper reports. No, it is not the size of any 紅包 the government might have announced. No, it is not any utility rebates my household may get. No, it is not how much is given for the medical services or for education (I check those second).

It is the proportion of the entire budget that is going to go into defence for the coming year.

This year, this statistic is around one-third, 32.8% to be exact. That's about S$10 billion.

S$10 billion.

That's about 50% more than that to be spent on education. 5 times more than that to be spent on health services. 5.5 times that to be spent on public transport. A staggering 9.6 times more than that to be spent on improving our environment and water resources. And 4 times more than than the much talked about Progress Package, i.e. the 紅包.

(For the record, budget for defence expenditures were 31.2%, S$9.26 billion in 2005 and 28.3%, S$8.62 billion in 2004.)

Then you step back and wonder about the amount of money spent by all the countries in the world on defence. The proportion of their budgets probably won't be as high as Singapore, given our special circumstances, but they surely run into billions as well.

Then you think about the people starving in Africa, the prevalence of diseases (think SARS and bird flu), increasing crime (I had to slip this in, given what I perceive to be the worsening crime situation I am experiencing in Sydney), pollution and our ailing Earth... etc.

OK, so I am being an idealist here. But just imagine. For a single human trait that is distrust of one another, we have spent and continue to expend so much of our finite resources on defence. This, at the expense of our own health, education and the very place we live on.

Like I said, I am being an idealist here. End of ranting. Till the next Budget then...

Now to decide what to do with my 紅包...

...hmm...

...they'll probably end up in the stock market. :P

(Edit: the following has been added at 5:08p.m.)

I just saw this article on CNA about China's defence budget for the coming year. It is about S$57 billion and represents about 7.4% of their entire budget.