“So there is no easy answer particularly for Singapore, and ranting by this blog and paper will not solve the problem..end of story!”

I agree that there is no easy answer for Singapore considering the limited knowledge available regarding what fiscal and labour policies should be implemented in a global recession, but it is worrying that the government seems to be losing sight of what actually matters most to Singapore – the well-being of Singaporeans.

I don’t think anyone here really believes that the PAP will listen to anything we say on this board, and much as I hate to admit it, I don’t foresee them losing their 2/3 majority in parliament over the next two elections. So treat all this as coffeeshop talk if you will, considering that there is almost no other outlet for political discourse in this so-called civil society.

//Joseph on Sat, 3rd Oct 2009 8:23 pm

And you sound like the propaganda I read every day in our 140th ranked newspaper. Ad hominem arguments sure do add value to the argument, don’t they?

Creative tried to sell as ‘cheaply’ as possible while Apple stuck to its guns on its high price while delievering a product with a lifestyle marketing.
What Creative didnt realise is that people like me get ticked off by how much and quickly Creative can devalue my mp3 device. This is further exacerbated by observing creative employees not bothering to pick up the phone in the Technical support center while hearing their phone ring continuously as i wait for them inside their support center.
One could argue that they are just lazy, OR it is because they are just paid too cheaply to be dilligent.

And thinking in terms of government policies, i felt that as long as a citizen wasn’t influential or have some high net-worth, he or she would be taken as a second-class citizen to MNCs, expatriates, scholars and ministers by each and everyone of us. I cannot help noticing how ‘nice’ we talk to fair-skinned foreigners or how bosses/supervisors continually praise the diligence of a Chinese/Bangla worker. Its an asian mentality i think and it just…. staunts our own personal social growth.
Afterall, these foreign workers work out of fear of being sent back, not because of some desire for some greater good to his/her immediate socal net.

“When prices rise above productivity it is called inflation and there is something called Fed which will raise interest rates creating more unemployment. Learn your economics.”

Inflation is a sustained increase in prices and has nothing to do with productivity. If the Korean store is able to maintain lower prices purely because it pays its employees below the wage rate, then it has no place in the US economy, simple as that. An increase in the prices of the Korean store is not going to affect the CPI at all since its weight is so small.

Besides, productivity in Singapore has fallen as can be seen from the falling GDP per capita due to the influx of foreign workers in unskilled jobs that could have been filled by Singaporeans. Inflation has also gone up because of the increased demand for household items. With a restriction on foreign workers, productivity will go back up and inflation will fall back down. I’ve already pointed out that wages account for a small percentage of the input prices in Singapore as compared to the high mark-ups involved. YOU learn your economics.

“Obviously you have not heard of CIS, FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups in America.”

How is this relevant to Singapore at all? I’m talking about Singaporeans who are complaining about construction jobs not paying enough in Singapore because foreign workers are forcing down wages. Again, no one is asking for construction jobs to be as prestigious as white collar jobs. Singaporeans are merely asking for these jobs to allow a citizen to make a decent living to support his family.

“Private sector.”

Point noted.

“Ask any German or European..they all get paid high minimum wages. Singaporean unemployment is far lower than that of US citizens or German citizens.”

Ask any Singapore citizens.. and I’m talking about the real Singapore citizens who hold red passports and cannot revoke their pink ICs. The unemployment rate in Singapore is always under-reported because it includes data for PRs, which will almost always be lower than that of Singaporeans.

“Japanese and the US did that amd guess where the jobs are? You guessed it right..Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and other Asian countries. You are deluding yourself if you think Singapore government will stay at home if you force them to pay higher wages. If you force them to stay they will just fold up and disappear as one of our corporations Circuit City did unemploying 80,000 Americans…liquidation. So there is no easy answer particularly for Singapore, and ranting by this blog and paper will not solve the problem..end of story!”

And where did the jobs that went to Singapore go to? Foreign workers who can take those jobs because of the favourable exchange rate! How does this help Singaporeans at all? Sure, they pay taxes, but these taxes are used by the government to fund more schemes to attract foreign workers instead of helping the poor!

Times are tough right now, everyone knows that. Any company will fold if it is not efficient enough. As I said in my previous post, if a company has to rely solely on paying low wages to survivie, then it has no place in Singapore, and that includes home-grown companies. Which companies were the first to leave Singapore when the GFC hit? MNCs, like Seagate did a few months back. The ones that the country can rely on are the home-grown ones, of which Singapore has almost none.

Japanese and the US did that amd guess where the jobs are? You guessed it right..Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and other Asian countries. You are deluding yourself if you think Singapore government will stay at home if you force them to pay higher wages. If you force them to stay they will just fold up and disappear as one of our corporations Circuit City did unemploying 80,000 Americans…liquidation. So there is no easy answer particularly for Singapore, and ranting by this blog and paper will not solve the problem..end of story!

When prices rise above productivity it is called inflation and there is something called Fed which will raise interest rates creating more unemployment. Learn your economics.

“Nobody is talking about making construction jobs or truckers as prestigious as white collar workers.”

Obviously you have not heard of CIS, FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups in America.

“I don’t know where you got the 60% figure from, but more than half of Singapore’s GDP comes from government-owned entities.”

Private sector.

“If the artificial suppression of wages were to be removed, overall unemployment will definitely increase, but the unemployment rate among Singaporeans will decrease while the wage rate will increase as well.”

Ask any German or European..they all get paid high minimum wages. Singaporean unemployment is far lower than that of US citizens or German citizens.

It all goes back to what I pointed out in my earlier reply to you. I said that Singaporeans with high-level jobs will not care about FTs coming in when they can still keep their jobs. The only ones who care are the low and mid level workers whose jobs are being taken away.

In the same way, Singaporeans with high-level jobs love to work overseas in Dubai, Sydney, London, and NY. The ones who don’t like it when foreigners come to work in Singapore are those who cannot afford to go overseas. This is the same everywhere. There is nothing wrong with embracing globalisatioin. What is wrong is the relentless pursuit of growth without paying special consideration to the less fortunate, and that includes making sure that they are able to find jobs that allow them to live decently. By all means, look at Singapore’s GDP and say that the PAP has done a good job overall. Take a look at the streets of Singapore and see how many poor people there are in the heartlands and you’ll change your mind.

I have no idea why everyone who is in support of the pro-foreigner policy always brings up the example of the UAE. There are ample articles on TR to distinguish Singapore and UAE. While UAE has a very large proportion of foreigners, those foreigners will always remain foreigners. The locals in UAE will always be given preferential treatment by their government. Some Singaporeans on a work permit in UAE have posted in the other articles and concurred. The problem in Singapore comes when the government places priority on foreigners by spending S$10 million on helping them to integrate or giving them free English classes when the resources could have been used to help the poor.