Why always target our salaries???

[Sabian]

The first/ second generation are the ones I respect. Now, maybe amy khor & lily neo have a feel of the ground.

 

The current batch only know how to stick their paws into the piggy bank, justify their out-of-this-world salaries and go on cruise cuntrol.

 

Their feel of the ground is zero. Always depend on their star player to bail them out when they kena obstacles their wards.

 

 

[Civicblade]

Good article, let's keep this up.

[Sunlight]

I believe the system started to go wrong when someone wanted to preserve his empire. see how many of his friends in the early years have left.

[Kezg1]

 

 

Good ....well written...

[Eyke]

the profit of each HDB flat made by HDB doesn't seem to be pumped back into the economy....don't know locked away where! failed investments?

 

don't anyhow say ok!

 

HDB is always losing money one

 

[Scenic98]

this article should reach out to more people.

i agree..rather than keep looking at wages, they should also focus on the next big cost that affect employers and employees...land cost. And who's the biggest land bank owner? They have artificially kept land cost high to grow their coffers. If they just lower land cost by a small percentage and let the laws of demand and supply work itself out, S'pore will be more competitive.

On the issue of FT....these days, i find myself speaking more Mandarin at the petrol kiosk, at the eataries and at departmental stalls. If this goes on, i think i better be a FT myself in another country soon.

[Darth_mel]

Hrrr ? WTF???? Must he use this comparison at all ?

 

Why dont he say, every pigeon hole we have, go over there can get 3 land properties. Every car can get 5 over there.

 

Better still.....every minister paid here, we can get 10 over there.

 

For every one president we hire here, we can hire 5 presidents from USA.

 

And each has the power to trigger WWIII with a click of a button. Ours only have power to cut ribbon and wave his hand at NDP, nothing more.

 

Jiao lang gong jiao weh. If Woody work in bird park, he will be more productive.

 

[Chewy]

I hear and I obey..... what are you saying?? I do not understand.... I only hear and obey....

[Toapayohkid]

For every one president we hire here, we can hire 5 presidents from USA.

 

And each has the power to trigger WWIII with a click of a button. Ours only have power to cut ribbon and wave his hand at NDP, nothing more.

 

Jiao lang gong jiao weh. If Woody work in bird park, he will be more productive.

 

 

our president has the second key to the reserves! :) not only cut ribbons and last to come first to go during ndp

[Grx80]

Brilliant article!! Upz...

[Sabian]

our president has the second key to the reserves! :) not only cut ribbons and last to come first to go during ndp

 

The second key already duplicated at mister minit lah...

[Drive_carcar]

I think your post is very impressive and the argument you put forth was just as good.

 

This time round, it is clear that the issue has nothing to do with wages. We are facing a world wide demand slump, and cutting wages just doesn't help anymore. Further, the JCS is not meant to rescue a business that is supposed to die off, at best it's just postponing the inevitable.

 

That said the govt had to do something. Putting aside the political motive let's consider it's effects. In essence it is giving companies the incentive to keep Singaporeans employed. And if the company does need to restructure at all, they are more likely to trim their "foreign talents".

 

Of course it cannot catch every exception as some companies may still trim Singaporeans who are bad performers and keep the foreign staff. Some companies may need the foreign staff more because of the contribution factors. But in most straightforward cases the choice is simple, keep locals fire foreigners.

 

Frankly it is a form of protectionism, just that there are outright protectionism like putting barriers to keep foreign talents out, and soft protectionsim like this, that give incentives to hiring locals.

 

Are there other ways to trim costs? How about cutting rental? I used to think this is workable, until I realised many property owners are heavily dependant on rental to finance the purchase of the commercial properties. Cutting rental may force too many people to default on their loans, which becomes a local version of the sub prime crisis. Rather than forcing the issue, the govt let the market forces to dictate the rental rate, which is a fairer option.

 

Basically there's no silver bullet here to kill the economic werewolf, as this werewolf is just way too big to be brough down with just one bullet. While we wait for day break in the form of the ecnomic slump bottoming out and recover, we have to do what we can to protect ourselves.

[Drive_carcar]

this article should reach out to more people.

i agree..rather than keep looking at wages, they should also focus on the next big cost that affect employers and employees...land cost. And who's the biggest land bank owner? They have artificially kept land cost high to grow their coffers. If they just lower land cost by a small percentage and let the laws of demand and supply work itself out, S'pore will be more competitive.

On the issue of FT....these days, i find myself speaking more Mandarin at the petrol kiosk, at the eataries and at departmental stalls. If this goes on, i think i better be a FT myself in another country soon.

 

You find more mandarin everywhere because there's no many Singaporeans who would take on such jobs. Maybe attitudes are slowly changing, but it'll be quite some time before you see more Singaporeans working a eataries, department stalls etc.

 

I for one do not hope to see a crash in property prices as well as rental. Maybe a soft landing might be okay. Too drastic a fall will put a lot of people into financial trouble.

[Application9999]

don't worry...they are preparing the GE liao....the time is coming for you to decide...

[Sabian]

the article not by me...it'is by a very lucky Singaporean, Lucky Tan.

 

it resonated me with like no other article. guess i am not alone in feeling this way.

[Sabian]

...i want to believe

[Drive_carcar]

the article not by me...it'is by a very lucky Singaporean, Lucky Tan.

 

it resonated me with like no other article. guess i am not alone in feeling this way.

 

Not sure if I'm alone in this, I'm inclined to think that every Govt (including ours) should focus their attention on the middle class. If we think of the bell curve, majority of the people are in the middle income level, and together this group of people makes a very formitable force in the market.

 

If the govt want to stimulate economies to spend out of the slump, they will have to focus their priorities in enhancing the spending power and confidence of the middle class.

 

Further, the middle class being the majority, it pays politically to keep them happy.