TWO months ago, futures trader Mika Sampovaara trekked for a week through the Cambodian jungle, along the famed Mekong River trail.
It was an adventure he had long dreamed of, but never had the chance to pursue until he left his homeland for Singapore two years ago.
However, being in the region was not the only factor that allowed him to indulge in his passion for travel. He also had the time and, more importantly, the money.
Before arriving here, Mr Sampovaara was part of Finland's welfare system, which taxed more than half of his income.
It caused him to flee its shores, he said in a letter to The Straits Times Forum page on Thursday.
He warned of the system's pitfalls in his letter which came amid the recent parliamentary debate here on how Singapore should avoid going down the risky road of welfarism.
When he was in Finland in the 1990s, Mr Sampovaara was a high-flying economist, stock analyst and broker.
Though he enjoyed his work, the hours were gruelling and his earnings put him in Finland's highest tax bracket of 60 per cent.
'For every $100 I earned, more than $60 was going to the state. It was frustrating because most of it went into welfare subsidies which I wasn't benefiting from,' he said.
Yet before he started working, Mr Sampovaara had in fact profited from the Finnish system.
As a master's student in Helsinki in the early 1990s, he enjoyed two years of free education and was given a housing grant as well.
Does his criticism of welfarism not strike him as hypocritical, given that he had enjoyed the fruits of the welfare state and has now left his country?
Mr Sampovaara's reply: 'Well, I contributed taxes for over five years in Finland. I've more than paid my dues to society.'
In 2000, he moved to Switzerland with his Russian wife Tanya, and worked for an Icelandic investment bank.
Four years later, drawn by the warm weather and lower tax rates, they moved to Singapore. Arriving in April 2004, they settled into a condominium apartment in Bukit Timah.
Mr Sampovaara set up his own company, trading in Japanese futures on the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading (SGX-DT). He pays a concessionary tax rate of 10 per cent under a special scheme for companies dealing in approved commodities.
The new arrangement allows the couple, both permanent residents, to lead a lifestyle that Mr Sampovaara says is 'much more relaxed'.
As his own boss, he puts in just three hours a day for the business, about one-fifth of the hours he clocked in as the director of an investment bank.
His earnings here are less than half of his gross income in Finland and Switzerland, yet after paying taxes, his net income is not much less than before.
'In the end, what the lower taxes have afforded me is time, which is the ultimate luxury,' he said.
Given his experiences, his serious reservations about the welfare system of Finland and other European states come as no surprise. Welfarism has also driven many of his friends to flee to greener pastures, he said.
Though the welfare system does benefit a segment of society, such as the elderly and middle-class families with children to support, Mr Sampovaara feels it has severely diminished the work ethic of the Finnish people.
It was probably a factor that crossed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's mind last Monday when he told Parliament that the system in Scandinavian countries was not suitable for Singapore.
The Government would find other ways of 'tilting the balance' in favour of the lower-income group, PM Lee said.
One approach being considered is to give a series of offset packages to help the poor manage an impending rise in the goods and services tax (GST).
PM Lee had announced last Monday that the GST will go up from 5 to 7 per cent, and said the money was needed to pay for more Government spending to help the lower-income.
Mr Sampovaara believes the Government is on the right track in its bid to narrow the income gap.
'Giving cash to the poor is more targeted. The money goes to those who need it, without punishing the rest of society,' he said.
He insists his objection to welfare subsidies in such areas as education and health care is not because he lacks compassion for the needy.
Rather, the fault lies in the nature of the welfare system, which provides subsidies for the masses 'indiscriminately', thus becoming susceptible to abuse by those who do not need the aid.
'The welfare system impinges on those who are willing to go out and make a living while providing for others with little incentive to work.'
The Singapore system works, he said, because 'at the end of the day, people are still accountable for themselves'.
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