Student concession fares on public transport

I watched the episode on the student concession fares with much interest. The poly students have asked to be given concession fares, similar to what was granted for junior college students. The disabled have also asked to be given the concessions. Even the Young PAP, which is the activist part of the party that forms the Government, has to speak at Speakers' Corner.

This episode highlights the fallacy of the Government in avoiding responsibility to govern. They prefer to let such matters be decided by the market. After privatizing the public transport, they decided that matters of fares and concessions should be decided by the public transport operators - or maybe the Public Transport Council has some say (I am not sure)!

The transport operators know the answer - maximize the profits, so they avoid having to give concessions, unless they have to. Their argument is that any concessions have to be borne by the full fare paying public, but this is not really true, as it can also be borne by reducing the shareholder's profits. This is really a political question - which cannot be dealt with by the free market. So, it is back to the Government to do the duty that they are elected to do.

I wish to extend this reasoning to many other sectors of our public life. We cannot let matters be left to the market. The Government has to step in and take the political decisions for our society, including setting laws and rules of proper behavior. If they fail in their duty, our society must surely decline.

Tan Kin Lian