the budget talk held this afternoon was pretty ok, although it was more geared towards jc students to give their say on what they want for the budget. btw, the budget will be released on 17 feb, so do keep a look out for it! it is afterall, a budget for us, and it's going to affect our lives so it'll be useful to pay some attention to it.

the budget tool has been up for some time already, and it allows people to tinker with it, and plan their own budget. it's an interactive tool which basically allows you to be the finance minister. should we give more sweeteners in the form of tax cuts/ increasing injections into education/ cpf top ups/ rebates or tighten our purse strings? why do we need to maintain a surplus and how do we deal with deficits? short term benefits vs long term gains? what do you think our country needs to focus on? it's here, go try the tool:http://www.budget2006.gov.sg/

i was 'volunteered' into being a student volunteer to present my version of the budget and thankfully, it wasnt as serious as they made it out to be. there were 5 student volunteers who had to present their budget, and give a short speech on the choices they made. following that was a q& a session where the audience pose qns regarding the various budgets and the student 'finance ministers' defend their choices. it was quite a lively session, and while it was pretty interesting hearing 5 different approaches, it was more interesting listening to the very contentious things that some of the jc students actually had the gall to say. fundamental flaws in their basic economic arguments.. some were just preposterous, and quite entertaining. at the end of the session, the audience got to vote on the budget they most preferred, and my "stay ahead, stay together" budget was most popular. haha rather amusing. the tangible reward? coffeebean vouchers... the perks of volunteering/being 'volunteered'.