Middle class blues

[BennyEd]

my humble opinion.

 

We got here too easy and too fast.

 

Our initial years of growth (first 20 years or so) was a result of rapid industrialisation. the manufacturing boom from a cheap hardworking labour force is not rocket science. Political stability and well planned infrastructure development, coupled with our strategic location along shipping lines, propelled us from third world to second.

 

But anybody can do low cost and hard work. its always been there. And as our low cost, hard work, competitive edge eroded with the emergence of IN, CN, etc., we tried, in the more recent past 20 years, to keep up with the growth, to attain first world, by switching into higher "value-added" sectors : banking, finance, law, medical-tourism, service-tourism (CASINO), R&D. GDP per capita went through the roof, but we paid a price. the price is that some sectors paid off, while others were punished, somewhat unjustly.

 

Every tom dick and harry today, knows which industries pay well. Ask any 18 year old today which career he'd like to have, and the answer is obvious. the one that pays. But for the 45-50 year old, PMET in manufacturing, or even the 35 year old who did his PHD in bio-engineering or the like, its too late to switch. screwed by policies. Even today, im sure we're desperately trying to lure/con the uniniated into the less popular, engineering/science disciplines. These folks would have been fine, but have had their cost of living driven up by their better paid counterparts.

 

These folks could have grown and evolved slowly up the food chain. But we took the easy way out, succumbed to the lure of easy money of the other lucrative fields. Now its irrecoverable, imo. We didnt give our manufacturing sector a chance to move up the chain, to evolve beyond hard work and low cost. and so today, we only compete on those terms. cost and "hard work". Our best and brightest have long fled those industries.

 

The next 20 years will be very interesting. the demise of manufacturing and the rise of our service industry has played out. whats next? whatever it is, i pray for our children that our leaders get it right.

 

Excellent opinion. This is thanks to PAP's 'economic growth at any cost' policies that were excellent for us in the short run, but end up pwning ourselves later on.

[Tonyhawk]

Well one thing, healthcare and education are our pillars still, and it still puts food on the table

 

i think you will recognise that those are still services. Professional services.

 

i think we might have missed a boat in the education business. the success story of the Aussie education industry is quite interesting. We have a very strategic position as a gateway between the east and the west. Particularly, China and the rest of the world. The very reason why Jim Rogers is here.

 

We could have aggressively sold our post/under grad programs to the west. But alas, we have so far only managed to attract, in droves, the easterners trying to head west, and hardly the other way round. As of now, i believe we are too late to reverse this, where the Chinese universities have already upped their stakes, and a westerner would prefer to head there directly.

 

Our local market is riddled with scam-like institutions selling their diplomas/degrees to the Chinese. As far as Im concerned, they might as well just issue student visas to KTV girls directly. a number of them are here for that reason anyway. The value that this particular market brings is limited.

 

as for healthcare services, i find increasingly, my doctor friends moving into aesthetics, for the $$. Im sure you know this better than me, with your alleged background. I fear that our competence as a hub for holistic medical care will slowly be eroded. As of now, the hospitals are slowly being populated with FT doctors. I would not be surprised in 20 years time to find a dramatic shortage of local professors in medicine.

 

The cost for medical-tourism has also burdened our locals. The cost of healthcare has gone up, and can only go up further. I was warded at Mt E Novena very recently. While it was beautiful, the bill that followed was truly boggling. I can imagine the competition for doctors and healthcare professionals as a result. Few doctors/nurses would not be tempted to go private. The running costs of public health care, can only go up.

 

ultimately, the healthcare/education industry are imo, on their last legs. how we navigate the next 20 years, coupled with the potential political upheaval, is a very scary thought.

 

Ok, Im done here. Peace. Majulah Singapura.

[Mustank]

i think you will recognise that those are still services. Professional services.

 

i think we might have missed a boat in the education business. the success story of the Aussie education industry is quite interesting. We have a very strategic position as a gateway between the east and the west. Particularly, China and the rest of the world. The very reason why Jim Rogers is here.

 

We could have aggressively sold our post/under grad programs to the west. But alas, we have so far only managed to attract, in droves, the easterners trying to head west, and hardly the other way round. As of now, i believe we are too late to reverse this, where the Chinese universities have already upped their stakes, and a westerner would prefer to head there directly.

 

Our local market is riddled with scam-like institutions selling their diplomas/degrees to the Chinese. As far as Im concerned, they might as well just issue student visas to KTV girls directly. a number of them are here for that reason anyway. The value that this particular market brings is limited.

 

as for healthcare services, i find increasingly, my doctor friends moving into aesthetics, for the $$. Im sure you know this better than me, with your alleged background. I fear that our competence as a hub for holistic medical care will slowly be eroded. As of now, the hospitals are slowly being populated with FT doctors. I would not be surprised in 20 years time to find a dramatic shortage of local professors in medicine.

 

The cost for medical-tourism has also burdened our locals. The cost of healthcare has gone up, and can only go up further. I was warded at Mt E Novena very recently. While it was beautiful, the bill that followed was truly boggling. I can imagine the competition for doctors and healthcare professionals as a result. Few doctors/nurses would not be tempted to go private. The running costs of public health care, can only go up.

 

ultimately, the healthcare/education industry are imo, on their last legs. how we navigate the next 20 years, coupled with the potential political upheaval, is a very scary thought.

 

Ok, Im done here. Peace. Majulah Singapura.

 

i love your posts

 

[Dannyaki]

i think you will recognise that those are still services. Professional services.

 

i think we might have missed a boat in the education business. the success story of the Aussie education industry is quite interesting. We have a very strategic position as a gateway between the east and the west. Particularly, China and the rest of the world. The very reason why Jim Rogers is here.

 

We could have aggressively sold our post/under grad programs to the west. But alas, we have so far only managed to attract, in droves, the easterners trying to head west, and hardly the other way round. As of now, i believe we are too late to reverse this, where the Chinese universities have already upped their stakes, and a westerner would prefer to head there directly.

 

Our local market is riddled with scam-like institutions selling their diplomas/degrees to the Chinese. As far as Im concerned, they might as well just issue student visas to KTV girls directly. a number of them are here for that reason anyway. The value that this particular market brings is limited.

 

as for healthcare services, i find increasingly, my doctor friends moving into aesthetics, for the $$. Im sure you know this better than me, with your alleged background. I fear that our competence as a hub for holistic medical care will slowly be eroded. As of now, the hospitals are slowly being populated with FT doctors. I would not be surprised in 20 years time to find a dramatic shortage of local professors in medicine.

 

The cost for medical-tourism has also burdened our locals. The cost of healthcare has gone up, and can only go up further. I was warded at Mt E Novena very recently. While it was beautiful, the bill that followed was truly boggling. I can imagine the competition for doctors and healthcare professionals as a result. Few doctors/nurses would not be tempted to go private. The running costs of public health care, can only go up.

 

ultimately, the healthcare/education industry are imo, on their last legs. how we navigate the next 20 years, coupled with the potential political upheaval, is a very scary thought.

 

Ok, Im done here. Peace. Majulah Singapura.

 

Our resident MCF wise old unker has spoken.

[Darthrevan]

When are you gonna improve your English brudder?

 

finally another person took notice of his english

[Acemundo]

I think sometimes it

[Darthrevan]

as the revered zhu ge liang said 天时、地利、人合

 

ermm..that is written by 孙膑

[Acemundo]

ermm..that is written by 孙膑

I thought I read it in 3 kingdoms.....

 

anyway, the more important part is to recognise that a successful person usually had all three factors in their favour. a very unsuccessful person most often failed very badly in the human factor.

 

as for the rest of people, most times they had a mixture of 2 out of 3 factors right.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Acemundo

[Voodooman]

finally another person took notice of his english

 

Notwithstanding his english, I give him A* for contents.

[Felipe]

the boss give mah.. take loh..

 

then boss should start salary reduction with himself first.

[Felipe]

If everybody dreamed big as you, became as successful as you 10 years down the road, who's gonna be the poor class and occupy the lower rungs of society/economy? We need the poor, godammit! Or else got nobody drive bus and taxi, teach preschool, cook nice and cheap food, etc etc.

 

One way of doing this is by importing poor third world workers from neighbouring countries to do these jobs, while all the locals get elevated to middle class lifestyles by having dreams and doing well, such as you had.

 

So you see, importing 3rd world FW actually benefits Singaporeans.

 

We all need a dog to kick in this society. So by importing 3rd world FWs, local Singaporeans will have someone lousier than them to kick, while luxuriating in their solidly middle-class status, lifestyle and aspirations. Such as yours.

 

it's a huge misconception that those who do blue collar jobs have to be poor.

[Wind30]

it's a huge misconception that those who do blue collar jobs have to be poor.

 

yup, it is very different overseas I think.

 

wonder if that model will work in singapore.

[Kiadaw]

When are you gonna improve your English brudder?

When I do not have to type in my office, with time limit of a few minutes between work. haha

 

I have a problem which is sometimes, what I write, & what I think, is different. Sometimes I wrote 'out' instead of 'our', & often forgot to add 's' when in pural.

 

But to be honest, English is not my piority right now. Depends on circumstances, I may have to learn Russian as well.

 

But I can accept critism of my language. No biggy.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Kiadaw

[Darthrevan]

yup, it is very different overseas I think.

 

wonder if that model will work in singapore.

 

it's pretty challenging to change the mindset of most sinkies..the whole idea of studying hard>graduation>look for a white collar(office job) and sitting in an air-conditioned room is deeply ingrained into many minds..the previous few generations already believed wholeheartedly and will most likely continue to feed these information to their spawns

Edited July 3, 2013 by Darthrevan

[Scoots]

https://www.facebook.com/REACHSingapore/pos...151152420902227

 

"Permanent residents contribute in other ways

Letter from Cherie Ball

 

SECOND-generation permanent residents (PRs) who are required to serve National Service (NS) are typically children of professionals who already contribute greatly to the economic progress of Singapore through the work that they do and the taxes that they pay.

 

Educational background, skills, proof of employment and continued ability to contribute appear to be key criteria for one's PR application.

 

In recent years, benefits given to Singapore PRs have been so watered down that being a PR is not that much different than being a Personal Employment Pass holder - apart from the right to live and work freely in Singapore and some hospital subsidies.

PRs also need to have their re-entry permit renewed every five years, which means the residency status granted is not really "permanent".

 

Why should a second-generation PR, who holds citizenship in another country, be required to serve NS to "give back" to Singapore, when they typically belong to a family of PRs who already contribute significantly to the country's economy?

 

And being a second-generation PR increases the likelihood of this person settling in Singapore after completing university to work and contribute. Isn't this another way of giving back later on?"

 

(This letter to TODAY was later removed from TodayOnline, writer is a Pinay married to ang-moh)

 

Song Boh?

 

I'm gonna highlight a different portion of this post

 

She is right! ... PRs are REALLY "not that much different than being a Personal Employment Pass holder"... so let's not try to pretend otherwise. They should be treated like long term work pass holders. No places in primary schools for their children, no access to 'subsidized' public housing (ie HDB flats). Pay foreigner rates for any secondary/tertiary education (AFTER Singaporean placement has been fulfilled), as well as for any medical treatment

 

In all honesty, if the rules were such, I have no problems with 2nd generation PRs not serving NS ...

 

One more thing. This clown is definitely no talent. Only can put forward subjective and biased viewpoint and not assess a situation with objectivity, pity the company that's playing for such trash. Singaporeans don't contribute? .... Pui!

Edited July 3, 2013 by Scoots

[Yuan]

Working in a place where 90% of my peers are real foreign talents, from your 3rd world asian countries like china and india, to advanced economy like korea and Japan, and even "atas" ang moh countries, I can honestly tell you that foreign talents are over-rated. Their communication skills are equally bad. Put all these people around the same meeting table, the singaporean usually has to end up being the translator because the aussie guy cannot understand the indian, the frenchs and germans can barely speak english properly, and the prc prefer to speak in mandrain. And then there will always be this asian with inferior complex who think the ang moh is looking down on him, or this occasional russian who the ang moh think is farking rude...Sometimes I do wish I have a chance to see how meetings are conducted at UN. As for real capability, some are good, some are bad. Just a mixed bag.

 

Those who can really communicate well, are, honestly, just good salesman, sorry, I mean business managers, who hardly know what they are talking about.

 

Anyway, it is not this group of real foreign talents that is depressing your middle class wage because most sinkie probably can't do their work anyway. It is the foreign talent wannabes who come here with degrees (possibly bought from a black market) and start depressing the wage by asking for 2k pay. Employers here are also one of a kind, you give them a chance to unlimited supply of cheap foreign worker, sorry, I mean "talent", they will never hire singaporeans at singaporean price again, even when the tap supply is off. They just whine that sinkies are not taking up available jobs, while Sinkies complain the pay is too low. There you have it, this is how the middle class dream died and everybody became labelled as strawberry. Price of everything went up, but wages didn't even catch up remotely close. I don't think we have a right to criticise the young because we didn't have to pay 350k for a 4rm bto, squeeze in crazy mrt that is even packed on weekend mornings, or compete with pinoys or indians asking 2k for a job that requires a masters degree.

 

Then again, the goverment can screw the people over and over again because people will stay here anyway. If it wasn't because of the low crime rate and the fact that I can sleep here at night without worrying about earthquakes or tropical storm, I would have already left.

 

Well said and I totally agree.

[RadX]

i think you will recognise that those are still services. Professional services.

 

i think we might have missed a boat in the education business. the success story of the Aussie education industry is quite interesting. We have a very strategic position as a gateway between the east and the west. Particularly, China and the rest of the world. The very reason why Jim Rogers is here.

 

We could have aggressively sold our post/under grad programs to the west. But alas, we have so far only managed to attract, in droves, the easterners trying to head west, and hardly the other way round. As of now, i believe we are too late to reverse this, where the Chinese universities have already upped their stakes, and a westerner would prefer to head there directly.

 

Our local market is riddled with scam-like institutions selling their diplomas/degrees to the Chinese. As far as Im concerned, they might as well just issue student visas to KTV girls directly. a number of them are here for that reason anyway. The value that this particular market brings is limited.

 

as for healthcare services, i find increasingly, my doctor friends moving into aesthetics, for the $$. Im sure you know this better than me, with your alleged background. I fear that our competence as a hub for holistic medical care will slowly be eroded. As of now, the hospitals are slowly being populated with FT doctors. I would not be surprised in 20 years time to find a dramatic shortage of local professors in medicine.

 

The cost for medical-tourism has also burdened our locals. The cost of healthcare has gone up, and can only go up further. I was warded at Mt E Novena very recently. While it was beautiful, the bill that followed was truly boggling. I can imagine the competition for doctors and healthcare professionals as a result. Few doctors/nurses would not be tempted to go private. The running costs of public health care, can only go up.

 

ultimately, the healthcare/education industry are imo, on their last legs. how we navigate the next 20 years, coupled with the potential political upheaval, is a very scary thought.

 

Ok, Im done here. Peace. Majulah Singapura.

 

good views and true what you said in every word.!! concur. We had the edge, yet, think complacency set in or the visionaries did not see beyond the realm

 

Thanks for youe inputs! Very enlightening [thumbsup]

 

[Oblong]

there is a crude chinese joke on the reasons for a stalled career.

 

1. 寡妇睡觉 - 上面没人

2. 荡妇睡觉 - 上面常换人

3. 媳妇睡觉 - 自己人搞自己人

 

Maybe no need 20 years, 5-7 years after the giant exit, we will know how it goes.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Oblong