As its designation states, the certificate of entitlement (COE) is an entitlement and assumes that as every person feels he is entitled to it, a price must be levied to show that one truly needs it ('COE domination by high-end marque buyers an unhealthy trend' by Mr Johnnie Chia; Wednesday).
In a meritocracy like Singapore, one earns more if one works harder and smarter than the other person. If an average-income earner wants a car badly, he will have to lift himself to a higher income bracket by working harder or smarter.
That is the COE's first benefit: as a spur to improving one's lot in order to secure a car.
Except for the peak-hour crunch, public transport is first-class. Without the COE, the roads would be clogged, and this is the COE's second benefit: freeing roads for efficient public transport commuting.
Mr Chia laments that stiff COE prices favour the wealthy, who can afford to buy more than one car.
What is also true is that a rich person can drive only one car at a time, so the second car is kept at home, and is not out on the streets causing pollution.
And that is the third benefit: fewer cars, less pollution.
Furthermore, the wealthy person pays a hefty premium to own a car he keeps in his garage and we should be thankful for his tax contribution: It helps pay for public conveniences.
My point is, one should always consider both sides of an issue.
When a person is wealthy and drives a Ferrari and is busy forging deals, he will be only too happy to have an Electronic Road Pricing system in place, so he can zip around and close another productive deal - and pay the salaries of his average-income employees.
That's life.
Lawrence Lee
Director
Mag-E group of companies
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