The wealth gap is widening. The answer isn’t more handouts – it’s a stake | The Straits Times   https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-wealth-gap-is-widening-the-answer-isnt-more-handouts-its-a-stake?fbclid=IwdGRjcASxakhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4jhW5o22PEI67useVtCYhrP8EpMHTTf9W_yH7KzOXRLNkPJADNb1N045uCfA_aem_fmMzQdMm5lLNTgj8wGv8fw   Here is a comprehensive breakdown and full details of the prominent opinion piece written by senior columnist **Vikram Khanna**, published in *The Straits Times* on June 26, 2026.   ### 1. The Core Issue: The Widening Wealth Gap   The article centers around a recent Ministry of Finance (MOF) paper detailing stark disparities in Singapore’s domestic wealth distribution. While income inequality can often be mitigated through policy adjustments, *wealth* inequality remains a deeply entrenched and worsening structural challenge.    * **The Disparity by the Numbers:** The average wealth held by a household in the **top 20%** of Singapore’s population is roughly **$5.3 million**. In stark contrast, a household in the **bottom 20%** holds an average of **$293,000**.    * **The Accumulation Problem:** To put the concentration of capital into perspective, the average wealth of the top 20% comfortably eclipses the average wealth of all individual households across the remaining bottom 80% combined (which amounts to $3.5 million).   ### 2. Why Handouts and Wages Aren't Working Anymore Khanna argues that traditional fiscal tools—such as cash transfers, CDC vouchers, or baseline wage growth—are structurally incapable of closing this gap.    * **The AI Revolution & Capital vs. Labor:** In the modern economy (and accelerated heavily by Artificial Intelligence), **capital returns are drastically outstripping wage growth**. Profits are shifting from labor to capital, from wages to corporate profits, and from everyday workers to asset-owning shareholders.    * **The Disproportionate Growth:** Historically, index assets like the S&P 500 have outpaced wage growth by nearly seven times, and even local assets like the Straits Times Index (STI) have outpaced nominal wages by roughly 3.8 times. If a person relies solely on a paycheck to build wealth, they are losing ground mathematically to those whose wealth compounds passively in financial markets.   ### 3. The Proposed Solution: Universal Basic Capital (UBC) Instead of relying on *Universal Basic Income (UBI)*—which provides cash that is typically consumed instantly to survive—Khanna champions the concept of **Universal Basic Capital (UBC)**.   The thesis is straightforward: If you cannot defeat the outsized returns of capital with a salary, **the government must give everyday citizens a permanent financial stake in those compounding assets.**    * **The "Singtel Model" Blueprint:** Khanna suggests drawing inspiration from Singapore's own history in the 1990s, when the government offered discounted Singtel shares to citizens during its initial public offering (IPO) to jumpstart local asset ownership.    * **Exposure to Compounding Assets:** Under a UBC framework, the state would systematically facilitate exposure to financial assets (such as equity funds, discounted state-enterprise shares, or sovereign wealth-backed vehicles) for lower- and middle-income families, ensuring they have an automated pathway to share in corporate and market profitability.   ### 4. Public Debate & Implementation Nuances   The article sparked a significant wave of discussion regarding how such a policy would play out in reality. Observers and policy analysts have highlighted a few crucial hurdles:    * **The Liquidity Trap:** Critics point out that lower-income households facing immediate financial distress are highly likely to liquidate any gifted shares or assets for short-term survival. If they sell immediately, the assets shift right back into the hands of the wealthy, restarting the cycle.    * **The CPF Alternative:** A common counter-proposal in the ensuing public debate is to restrict UBC within tightly locked structures like the Central Provident Fund (CPF) to safeguard long-term compounding for retirement. However, this creates political tension, as individuals often push back against rigid government lock-ups of assets they technically "own."   > **Summary Takeaway:** The article asserts that unless structural economic rules are changed to grant the bottom 80% of households direct exposure to wealth-generating capital, AI and market dynamics will continue to aggressively funnel rewards toward shareholders, permanently cementing the wealth divide. > 

If we paid full 85m (which is Antony price) and offered him 250k pw, then we become Banter FC   65m + add ons is the max we should go, and rightly so

中国知名快餐连锁品牌老乡鸡将进入新加坡市场。本地餐饮品牌珍宝集团（Jumbo Group）宣布，与老乡鸡相关公司成立合资企业，在本地开设和经营中式快餐餐厅。   https://zb.sg/wsFb

Don't know how many outlets are they going open here ?