# data[].attributes.body
For HBLE, you will have both a morning (AM, before 12pm) task and an afternoon (PM, from 12 - 7pm) task.

AM: Look through the given resources and note down the key points. Then, craft a paragraph for either the thesis or anti-thesis to the following discussion question:
"To what extent does greater government spending improve the SOL of a country's citizens?"

If you see that many have already written paragraphs for the thesis, try writing the anti-thesis instead.  Remember to use PEEL to guide your writing.

When posting, use your name as the title (otherwise your teacher can't check if you've completed your work).

PM: Read through the arguments written by your classmates. Then, comment on an argument made by one of your classmates (more if you wish).  In your comment, you may:
1. Question assumptions made
2. Write a counter-argument
3. Elaborate on the extent

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending means that / leads to ______________. [this is a sample]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Singapore Budget 2017 explained in 3 minutes

# data[].attributes.headline
Singapore to raise taxes as government spending increases

# data[].attributes.subject
Singapore to raise taxes as government spending increases

# data[].attributes.headline
Greek budget surplus beats creditor targets at 3.9%

# data[].attributes.subject
Greek budget surplus beats creditor targets at 3.9%

# data[].attributes.body
greater government expenditure in both current and development expenditure will push up AD & increase GDP. more consumer goods & services available. higher income, greater spending power. attract foreign direct investment, increase employment rate decrease crime rate. thus increase in government expenditure increases SOL.

# data[].attributes.body
depends on what the government spends on. some governments have used a higher portion of NY on military equipment & armaments. the US spends almost as much money on defence as all the other countries in the world combined. NK, China & India possess nuclear weapons & they arent even rich. government expenditure on ostentatious projects to flaunt their wealth and boost their own social image; sultan of brunei with his estimated wealth of US$20b. has 7000 high performance cars worth more than $5b.... does not spend enough on basic infrastructure for the welfare of the people; in brunei there are only 4 hospitals & 0 medical schools.

# data[].attributes.body
if the govt spends on subsidising businesses, businesses will earn more profit & customers do not get cost savings increasing the income inequality. favours businesses more than the welfare of the people; absence of minimum wage in singapore(?)

expenditure increase negative externalities where social cost overwhelms the private costs, the country is said to be worse off. eg pollution, traffic congestion, deforestation, overwork; karoshi in japan, ‘poor rich japanese’ die from overwork, hectic lifestyle; sucide rates highest in japan & SK, industrial accidents- china accounts for 80% of the world’s total altho it only produces 35% of the world’s coal.

i dont know what to write for synthesis?? human development index, gross national happiness(??) im not sure lol

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending means that the standard of living in terms of qualitative and quantitative aspects might be worsened due to factors such as unemployment, leisure, the fall in the amount of goods and services available for consumption. In the case of Greece, the government had been overspending for 10 years and when there was the financial crisis in 2008, Greece was not prepared for it. In order to try to recover the economy, the government took a 240 billion euros loan from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. This resulted in higher taxes and a cut in consumption, due to a further worsening in debt. With a cut in consumption, this caused the quantitative aspect of the standard of living to fall as the Greek are restricted to consuming a particular amount of goods and services. There was also an increase in unemployment, up to 25% due to the decrease in consumption, less workers are required. This resulted in many riots starting and protesting against the government. Furthermore, since there was a smaller workforce, it reduced the incentive for early retirement. Hence, unemployment, riots and no early retirements might cause the people to be mentally stressed out as they are unable to support their families during the financial crisis; this causes the qualitative aspect of standard of living to decrease. Therefore, greater government spending does not necessarily improve the standard of living of a country’s citizen.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater govt spending = not necessarily increase in SOL

Increased govt spending may not necessarily mean an increase in the SOL of the people. Govt budget comes from taxpayers in the form of taxes – direct and indirect. Like SG in the form of personal income tax (direct) and GST (indirect). An increase in govt spending would mean an increase in tax on the people to fund the govt spending. An increase in taxes would mean lower purchasing power of people as well as a decrease in disposable income, resulting in a reduction in the consumption of amount of goods and services. Hence, leading to a decrease in the quantitative aspect of SOL.

Increased govt spending doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in the SOL as it also depends on what the govt is spending on and if the govt is running on a deficit or surplus.

If the govt is spending more but is running on a deficit then it will not increase the SOL. Budget deficit is when the govt spending is greater than the revenue it generates and continuous deficits will lead to the government being in debt like in the case of Greece whose budget deficit was 12.9 percent of its gross domestic product after 10 years of overspending. This means that the govt of Greece would direct its spending towards repaying its accumulated debt instead of increasing and improving the amount and quality of goods and services available for the consumption of the people. Hence, the quantitative aspect of SOL of the people did not increase. In the long run, this will scare off investors, worsening the chance of the government finding the funds to repay its debt as with the case of Greece. Because of the lack of investors, there will be a decrease in jobs and unemployment rose to 25 percent and riots erupted in the streets of Greece. Hence, decreasing the qualitative SOL of the people as society is unrest and dangerous.

What the govt is spending on also dictates whether the SOL increase when govt spending increases. If the govt spends on things like military ammunition and vehicles, which are not for direct consumption of the people, then the increased govt spending will not increase the SOL of the people as there is no increase in the amt of goods and services available for consumption. However, it has to be noted that although there may not be an increase in the goods and services available for consumption, in the long run, spending on military defences will improve the security of the country from potential threats and could provide a better security system for the people which would mean an increase in the quality of life as people live safer lives. Where the increase in govt spending is directed to and if it improves the SOL depends on how much of the increase in govt spending was spent on it and the relative benefits it would bring with regards to the increase in spending. Short term and long term effects should also be considered like for example when Greece hosted the Olympics. The govt spent a huge amount on constructing facilities for the Olympics. In the short run, it benefited Greece as it left a good impression of Greece on investors because the quality of the infrastructures and facilities. In the long run however, the facilities became obsolete and abandoned, which means that the huge government spending was pointless in the long run as it did not serve any purpose like increasing the services available for the people of greece as people do not use the facilities. Hence, the spending went to waste.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater govt spending = increase in SOL, both qualitative and quantitative.

Increased govt spending contributes to an increase in the AD which will in turn lead to the increase of national income through the multiplier effect. When govt increases its spending, the AD increases and firms will employ more factor inputs from households to increase production and hence will pay household more factor income. The increase in income induces households to increase consumption which leads to a rise in AD which will lead on to the continuous cycle of firms employing more and households consuming more, resulting in an increase in National income. An increase in national income means increased purchasing power of people, allowing them to consume more goods and services, thus improving the quantitiave SOL of people. Also, in the multiplier process, unemployment is decreased , leading to more positive sentiments of the people and lesser social unrest. Hence, an increase in qualitative SOL. However, the qualitative aspect of SOL may not necessarily increase when there is more employment. It could mean longer working hours and lesser leisure time for the people.

Increased govt spending means an increase in goods and services available for consumption to the public.  Like Sg where the increase in govt spending went to investing in infrastructure, including in the country's rail and ports and helping workers and companies through economic restructuring. The Sg govt is also spending more on healthcare to make it more affordable and accessible to the rising demand of healthcare due to our ageing population. Hence, by spending on different things like healthcare and infrastructure, there is an increase in the amount of goods and services available to consumers and thus, an increase in the quantitative aspect of SOL. There is also an increase in the qualitative aspect of SOL as we receive better quality healthcare treatments and better and stronger infrastructure such as better quality railways which improve our quality of transport. However, the increase in goods and services available for consumption may be at the expense of a cleaner environment. As the govt spends more on facilities and infrastructure, it may have been done with heavy pollution and harm to the environment which will not improve the qualitative SOL of the people as they live in a more polluted environment

# data[].attributes.headline
Bryan Tan                Government expenditure refers to the purchase of goods and services by the government which includes current spending in paying salaries and capital spending in healthcare, education and defence etc. Greater government spending can be beneficial to SOL of country’s citizens, both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative aspect of SOL refers to material well-being which is determined by amount of G&S available for consumption. A recession leads to decrease in components of AD. Through fiscal stimulus, the government can give its citizens and households money to spend, which in line with material well-being increases SOL for country’s citizens. Qualitative aspect of SOL refers to non-material well-being which includes quantity of healthcare, leisure and quality of environment etc. Government expenditure plays an important role in economic and social development of a country. The government spends mainly on the building of infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools etc., which helps to make a country attractive to investment. This spending improves the environment that the citizens live in, which corresponds to the qualitative aspect of SOL for country’s citizens.

# data[].attributes.subject
Bryan Tan                Government expenditure refers to the purchase of goods and services by the government which includes current spending in paying salaries and capital spending in healthcare, education and defence etc. Greater government spending can be beneficial to SOL of country’s citizens, both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative aspect of SOL refers to material well-being which is determined by amount of G&S available for consumption. A recession leads to decrease in components of AD. Through fiscal stimulus, the government can give its citizens and households money to spend, which in line with material well-being increases SOL for country’s citizens. Qualitative aspect of SOL refers to non-material well-being which includes quantity of healthcare, leisure and quality of environment etc. Government expenditure plays an important role in economic and social development of a country. The government spends mainly on the building of infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools etc., which helps to make a country attractive to investment. This spending improves the environment that the citizens live in, which corresponds to the qualitative aspect of SOL for country’s citizens.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government expenditure is likely to cause an increase in AD. It will help to increase the SOL of citizens qualitatively and quantitatively. Firstly, interms of education , government spending can increase the quantitative aspect of ones life, as in the future with more education one is able to earn more and able to buy more goods. Investing on infrastructure such as spenditure on roads and railways can increase acessibility for residents. There can also be welfare befits where it will help to reduce inequality among residents. Then, due to the increase spenditure of government, companies will start to invest more in the country as it is seen more stable and reliable to invest in. Thus, country earns more = import more goods = residents able to enjoy a wider range of goods and services.

# data[].attributes.body
Government expenditure doesn't mean an increase in SOL. Firstly, if government spends more on producing goods and services and provides incentives to companies then it can lead to pollution caused by the industries ... this can lead to a lower quailty of life . Then, government expenditure can be also based on military equipment. Which increases the REAL GDP but it is because of the expenditure in research on military and buying military equipments which does not increase the SOL of residents. Government increasing expenditure could be from the use of the money from the taxpayers which are the residents. Esnetially, the residents are paying for the government expenditure.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending does not necessarily improve the SOL of a country’s citizens.

Firstly, SOL measures the material and non-material wellbeing of its people. It comprise of both quantitative and qualitative aspects of living standards. Quantitative aspect refers to the amount of goods and services available for consumption. On the other hand, the qualitative aspect insclues infant mortality rates, quality and quantity of health care and leisure, quality of environment etc.

Greater government spending , being a component of aggregate demand , contributes to an increase in AD, which leads to a rightward shift in demand curve and hence increases real GDP. This means that the government is putting more funds on various parts of the economy that boost the country’s real GDP, perhaps pumping in money on healthcare especially due to ageing population in the case of Singapore. In SG Budget 2017, it is also mentioned that some portion of its budget is set aside for one-off special transfers which caters to the less well off, improving the SOL of those who needs financial aid. It must also be noted that a huge portion is also spent on infrastructure to attact foreign talends, might not directly affect one’s SOL. Also, real GDP refers to the total money value of all final goods and services produced within a country’s geographical boundary during a given period of time , taking into account inflation. However, the citizen’s quantitative SOL is not accurately measured, since high real GDP of the country might mean the rich minority and poor majority. It would then be more accurate to consider the citizens quantitative SOL , by dividing real GDP over population size.

This however, is also not sufficient to determine the SOL of the citizens due the limitations even with the real GDP per capita itself, arises from measurement, conceptual , exchange rate problems and it does not take into account qualitative aspect of citizen’s SOL.

# data[].attributes.body
Standard of living measures the social and economic welfare of a country’s citizen.

Firstly, greater government spending given to companies can help increase productivity as companies can now invest in machines that can help increase productive capacity. Hence , this shifts the aggregate supply (AS) curve outward and rightwards to AS1. As such, the aggregate demand (AD) curve cuts AS1 at national income(Y1), where Y1 is more than Y. With income rising, the country’s citizen would have higher purchasing power and increased willingness and ability to purchase goods and services. As such, there would be an improvement in quantitative standard of living as they are now able to consume more goods and services.

Secondly, greater government spending can help increase one’s income (as explained above). As such there would be increased tax revenue collected from increased household income. With more tax revenue collected, government would have more funds to spend on merit goods such as healthcare and education. With healthcare and education made more accessible to the country’s citizens, there would be an improvement in qualitative standard of living.

# data[].attributes.body
Standard of living measure the social and economic welfare of a country’s citizen.

Firstly, the increase in government spending can be derived from the increase in tax collected from country’s citizens. In this case, the income increased from the increase in government spending previously will be eroded from the tax collected if tax is more than the increase in income. Hence, this reduces consumers purchasing power, reducing their willingness and ability to consume goods and services. As such, with ability reduced, it will worse the quantitative standard of living of the citizens

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending does not necessarily improve the SOL, but can instead lead to a degradation in SOL. In the case of Greece, due to overspending, the country was unable to cope with the 2008 Global Financial Debt, lacking the reserved funds to improve the state the economy and left the it to suffer during the recession. To help their citizens to cope with the recession, Greece had to ask for a loan from other countries to continue to subsidise the purchases of citizens to keep them affordable at the expense of increasing their debt to the European Union. In order to pay back the debt, they had to increase their taxes drastically to both pay back the debt and ensure that another crisis does not occur again, resulting in the fall in the internal value of the Greek currency, lowering the purchasing power of greek citizens, leading to a fall in consumption and a fall in quantitative SOL. Not only that, due to the recession because of government over-expenditure, investors loose interest in investing in Greece, lowering the demand for the Greek currency by overseas markets and therefore weakening the external value of the currency. As such, the ability of Greeks to purchase foreign goods has fallen, consuming less foreign goods and therefore leading to a fall in Quantitative SOL. Since the government is inept due to overspending, they lack the funds to improve and maintain the infrastructure like roads and buildings, causing these supporting infrastructures to degrade and therefore leading to a fall in qualitative SOL since their quality of life has degraded.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending means that the government is spending more on purchase of good and service as well as investment goods. It reflects that the capital spending by the government is increasing. In the case of Singapore, the government is spending more on infrastructure, healthcare and education. The government is improving on the quality of the country’s rails and ports thus increasing accessibility within the country. In today's society, the population is aeging. In order to cater to the country’s increasing demand for affordable healthcare, the government has spent more on that particular sector. Also, the education sector is being invested in by the government. More funds are being placed on pre-schools, showing emphasis on education. By spending more on education, the government is allowing its citizens to be better able to afford education and thus would be able to upgrade themselves with the suitable skill sets needed for their job expertise. This would allow the citizens to find jobs that are of higher pay. This reflects that the government is spending more on goods and service to make the various sectors such as healthcare and education more affordable and accessible for the citizens. Therefore, the citizens would have higher purchasing power and would be able to afford more healthcare and education hence improving the quantitative aspects of SOL of a country’s citizens.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending does not necessarily improve the SOL of a country's citizens.
Standard of living (SOL) refers to both material and non-material well-being of a typical household or individual within the country; it encompasses both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of living.
Government spending could be in the case of higher expenditure allocated to the defense sector, which leads to opportunity costs of allocating funds for healthcare or education etc. In this case, qualitative aspect of SOL will fall.
In the case of overspending by government and a deficit occurs, they will have to borrow funds to finance that deficit; and as a result to repay back, they will increase taxes in the form of corporate tax, personal income tax and GST. Corporate tax will decrease after-tax profits and hence rate of return of investment will fall, thus firms may cut back production, lesser amount of goods and services will be available for consumption, hence quantitative aspect of SOL falls. With rising personal income tax and GST, consumer's purchasing power falls, and hence consume lesser goods and services, decreasing the quantitative aspect of SOL.

# data[].attributes.body
government expenditure refers to the purchase of goods and services as well as investment goods by the government. standard of living (SOL) refers to the quantitative and qualitatively aspect of the citizens' lives. in singapore, the government spends mostly on infrastructure, education, the ageing population, and healthcare. in the budget summary, it can be seen that the government intends to spend more on community mental health, environment quality, and pre school accessibility. spending on education, healthcare and the ageing population improves the qualitative aspect of living in singapore. the singaporean government also spends a lot on infrastructure such as road mapping and the public sector construction productivity fund. this makes singapore a country attractive to investors. and increase in investment will result in an increase in aggregate demand which can improve SOL. however, the government budget comes from taxes paid by the citizens. with and increase in government spending, an increase in taxes will follow. this can affect the quantitative aspect of SOL as it would result in smaller disposable income for its citizens. even so, there are GST vouchers available to help the lower income group. hence the extent of lowered SOL may not be that significant. Overall, with an increase in government spending, SOL will increase.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government expenditure improves the quantitative and qualitative aspect of SOL.

When government spending increases, AD increases. Since government spending is a form of injection, this stimulates the economy to flow since injections exert an expansionary pressure on income. From the multiplier effect, an increase in AD will bring about an increase in the level of national income. When the level of national income increases, the purchasing power of consumers increases, allowing them to consume more goods and services, thus improving the quantitative aspect of SOL of people.
Greater govt spending improves the economy, such as govt spending in SG on infrastructure, and on rails and ports. This allows firms to improve the quality and quantity of their resources and increase productivity capacity. This also increases productivity levels within the economy. With an increase in AS and AD, this further increases NY, thus improving quantitative SOL.
The SG govt also funds measures to the society in an intangible aspect, such as education busaries, providing top-ups to the Medifund scheme, and even funding community sports events to strengthen community bonds. This improves the non-material well-being of the community, thus improving qualitative SOL. Although greater govt spending results in higher taxes, ultimately, the citizens in the country will benefit in the form of greater consumption and also more opportunities in education, subsidised healthcare, and time for leisure.

# data[].attributes.body
When there is an increase in government spending such as building of more train networks,  maintaining parks, aggregate demand (AD) increases from the formula C+I+G+(X-M). From the multiplier effect, national income increases. Citizens will be able to consume more goods and services due to an increase in purchasing power, thus quantitative SOL increases. The government provide subsidies to citizens who are unable to afford healthcare in the country. This serves as a safety net and also helps people to afford healthcare and stay healthy, and so quantity of healthcare increases. The government also build more hospitals and spend more on infrastructure of hospitals. This improves quality of healthcare. Thus, qualitative SOL increases.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending does improve the standard of living (SOL) of a country's citizens in a material and non-material aspect. This is because government spending is based on the needs/plans that each ministry in a country requires.

Firstly, an increase in government expenditure increases Aggregate demand (AD) since AD=C+I+G+(X-M). With an increase in aggregate demand, national income (NY) increases due to the multiplier effect. With an increase in NY, citizens have an increased purchasing power (PP) and hence experience an improvement in their material standard of living as they are better able to afford their necessities.

From the non-material aspect, for example, the Ministry of Transport may require government funds to improve road infrastructure by ensuring that more facilities will be upgraded/built to fit the needs of the public. Such facility upgrades/instalments can benefit the general public in terms of safety (where humps are introduced to ensure that drivers slow down at specific points with higher traffic flow), And can also benefit specific groups of people, such as the elderly or the disabled.

In the context of Singapore, increased government spending to aid the elderly in their journeys using public transport can improve the overall non-material well-being of Singaporeans. This is because with the issue of ageing population arising in Singapore, the government seeks to create a more elderly-friendly society where public facilities are less physically straining. for example, the silver road-crossing zone implemented prevents elderly from jaywalking with and also allows them to walk less to prevent aches.

With the above improvements to public infrastructure via government expenditure, it is understood that increased government expenditure is mandatory in order to cater to the different needs of citizens at a specific point in time (whereby currently, Singapore faces the problem of an ageing population). This hence improves the non-material standards of living of the elderly citizens in Singapore.

Hence, greater government spending does indeed improve both the material and non-material aspect of standards of living for citizens in a country.

# data[].attributes.body
Greater government spending however, does not aways necessarily mean that the standards of living citizens in a country will improve. Greater government spending has to be funded by an increase in taxes or public fees (Such as ERP fees and public carpark fees). Such taxes when increased to fund increased government spending is often a substantial amount of a citizen's monthly income. With an increase in taxes to fund greater government spending, the amount of disposable income left for citizens to spend on goods and services reduce, causing their purchasing power to decrease and hence their material wellbeing to deteriorate.

Furthermore, an increase in government spending may also be funded by loans made by the government to other countries. When not handled properly, government spending may increase exponentially and cause the government to lack the ability to repay their significant amount of debt. In the case of Greece, the government's increased spending was funded by loans from other countries. However, their are unable to repay their debts and this has caused public uproar with increased unemployment rates and increased number of riots and protests. With an increased rate of unemployment, more citizens are unable to feed themselves and their families due to the lack of income to purchase necessities, hence causing material wellbeing to deteriorate. Furthermore, lack of income to purchase necessities may translate to an increase in crime rates as citizens resort to robbery to fend for themselves. An increased crimes rate will then cause non-material standard of living to deteriorate.

As such, an increased government spending may not necessarily improve the citizens well-being, especially in the long run.

# data[].attributes.body
While increased government spending may lead to increased economic and social development, that is a rise in the quantitative and qualitative standard of living, what the government channels its monetary resources to should also be considered. For instance, the difference in government spending between two countries might be due to differences in defence expenditure — Greece's higher government spending could be because it allocates more resources for its military agendas. As it is not consumer goods that the people are spending on, economic welfare is barely increased; the qualitative standard of living is high due to increased security, but the quantitative standard of living is relatively constant as the people's purchasing power parity remains the same. Thus, greater government spending does not necessarily improve the standard of living of a country's citizens.