7/16/2018

How much is a worker paid versus how much he has to pay to live

"A family getting by on $117,400 (£87,970) in one US city can now be considered ‘low income’, according to government figures. How can that be the case?
That workers with six-figure salaries could be considered “poor” is something that might surprise many people.
But taking into account income and housing costs that is the reality for some families – who may be eligible for housing assistance – according to a recent report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In San Francisco and nearby San Mateo and Marin Counties it said $117,400 for a family of four was “low income”, while $73,300 (£54,900) was “very low income” – the highest figures anywhere in the country.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026"

The above statement was posted by Cynical Investor to explain the relative income and purchasing power of money. Everything is relative and the numbers are deceiving. We have recently heard Koh Poh Koon lamenting that the productivity of our workers was below the wages they were being paid, ie, our workers are overpaid. So how? He is saying that the wages or our workers are too high, overpaid, so it is necessary to cut down the wages of our workers to be competitive.
This is a very simplistic view of the relationship between wages and productivity. An approach we called single factor analysis, picking on one or two isolated factors to prove a point but really is misinformation or disinformation. The wages of workers are not just measured on productivity alone though productivity is an important factor.

The workers need to live and get on with his life in a given set of parameters in the society or country he lives. He needs to pay for housing, food, clothing, bringing up children, medicare and all the social needs that cost money. This is why there is a term called basic wages that is linked to the cost of living of a country. How much does a person needs just to afford the basic needs of his environment to get by.

Singapore has priced itself to be one of the most expensive city in the world. Some jokers think this is a great achievement and recklessly increasing the cost of living with higher and higher taxes and fees to be on top of the world for the wrong reason. They did not care simply because they are being paid in the millions and would not be affected by the higher cost of living. But for the workers every cent counts and any increases would eat into his already thin wage and would likely to mean he has to give up on things that he no longer has the extra dollar to pay for. They have to cut ends and eat less or live on less.

Does the govt ever consider how much a family needs to live in this most expensive city in the world when  the value of money is getting smaller by the day? Before any joker starts to even think of wage cuts, he should be very clear in his mind what is the minimum wage needed to get by in this expensive city. Oh, what expensive, $1,000 wage can buy HDB flats. Oh ya?

In countries like China or India, when cost of living are very low, they could pay their workers low wages but still enough to live comfortably.  With the big difference in exchange rates, the workers of these countries would be paid really very little relative to our workers and thus become very competitive relative to their productivity. Would the jokers conveniently say our workers should also be paid the same wage as these workers to be competitive?

The above examples of the income of American workers are obvious and easy to understand even to the dull. The paper value of income must be read in the context of the cost of living of the country. Singapore has prices itself out of competition by its silly and irresponsible policies that ended up in very high cost of living and going higher by the day. And the jokers think that this is sustainable as long as we reduce the wages of our workers to be competitive.

It is very easy to make arguments in a vacuum or use single factor anal-lysis. Just keep farting. Yes the wages are high relative to the wages of developing countries. But our wages are low, some near poverty level, relative to our high cost of living.

So, what is your answer? Raise more taxes, more rentals, higher property prices, higher fees, higher train and bus fairs, build more monuments and charged to the people?

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

GD morning RB.
Agree with ur pts.
Should suggest that if u cud forward ur opinions to that Ministers of Trade & Industry that is also a kok-lecteral surgeon, make him understand what is productivity vs basic wages is all about? Make that Kok-fellow understand as he seems misled or misguided by the whites party & fail to understand the ordinary people suffering. He even commentated that each Sinkies household got 2 cars, OMG !

Anonymous said...

High-income Dr Koh Poh Koon's comments is often so out of touch with the ground.

Remember he said "everybody has a car, we have two...We are professionals, we need to travel" in the Punggol East by-election ?

Still, 69.9% will still vote for this type of candidate in the next General Election. Sigh, the terrible situation we are in will still continue . . .

Anonymous said...

Complain so much for fuck?!?!?!?!

Sinkies deserve the fucking govt they voted for!!!!

Nothing will change until much more Sinkies die .... at least 500,000 need to die within next 2 years for PAPies to be overthrown.

SSO said...

"Does the govt ever consider how much a family needs to live in this most expensive city in the world when the value of money is getting smaller by the day?" - RB.

Oh yes, the government does it all the time. But they do it for their ministers, generals and top civil servants only. That's the beauty of it all.

Why bother with the rest? We only need to take care of the white horses mah. How to take care of everybody?

As long as I can make my lieutenants happy, I, as the captain of the ship, should have no problems, right?

The rest can be taken care of by my lieutenants mah.

Who dare to mutiny? Given the daft, meek, subservient and cowardly character of the general population, there won't be any revolution, mutiny or coup in a long time to come. So why worry?

Let the worry worries itself lah. In the mean time, we keep reaping million dollars salary and multi-million dollars bonuses. And take care of our own bank accounts, and buy a few houses in the US, UK or Australia, just in case the ship sinks and we have to run road. That is the way to go.

You see? Quite Easily Done. I am not a mathematical genius for nothing, you know?

Three cheers for Our Natural Aristocracy! Long Live The King of Slimy Island!

You don't like it? Emigrate lah. What else can you do, losers?

Anonymous said...

The asshole doctor is really an asshole! That's all I can say. KNNCCB!

Anonymous said...

9.10 am, mutiny is death penalty lar so who want to lead cause when he turn his head back, there is no one behind except him. Knn u know sinkies lar.

Anonymous said...

@ Anon 9:29am

Correct, mutiny is death penalty.

That's why soldiers invented "fragging" and "accidental friendly fire".

Underhanded officers / leaders require underhanded methods to deal with them.

Anonymous said...

KNN, mutiny is death penalty. Yes. But when mutiny succesful, who got death penalty har?

KNN. Only got one track mind. Gone case lah.

Sinkieland all people like you, 100% sink to the bottom and still don't know what the fucks is happening. KNN. CB.

Virgo49 said...

Anon 8.46

Are you referring to the estimated 500,000 PG dafts which made up of 20% of the 69.9% PAP voters???

The balance nearly 50% of greater DAFTs also need to join the 20% daft PG to die in order that the Pay And Pay be replaced.

That's left the 30% FOREIGN talents to be the owners of Sinkieland.

You seemed to be very antagonistic towards the PG generation which also included your parents and kins.

Sigh, think you yourself may also be a hypocritical Papie supporter.

Anonymous said...

Currently Sinkies number 3.2m out of total 5.7m here.

0.5m Sinkies die is only 15.625% of total Sinkies.

But is necessary number for rest of Sinkies to wake up & overthrow PAPies.

From Singstats, already got around 100+ Sinkies die each day --- that's 36,500 to 40,000 Sinkies die every year.

If remain status quo i.e. only 40k Sinkies die every year, confirm PAPies will continue to rule until at least 2040.

Anonymous said...

Idiots with pea brains who keep blaming the Pioneer Generation are actually blaming their parents and/or grand parents. Such unfilial scums should have been squashed to death when they were born. KNNCCB! Pui! Pui! Pui! Choy!

Anonymous said...

But he got no parents leh. Born from a virgin hole of an unknown person.

b said...

It depends on where they live. Some states housing are one million, and some other states housing are 300k. Of course, the bankers know how to screw the people. They make sure the jobs are in states with sky high housing. THe gov will cooperate with them. They control those companies that have jobs. Vicious cycle. Bankers are to be blame for almost everything.

b said...

Sinkies should get their kids ready to jump ships. Otherwise, stay here only get tiny flats and no cars.

Anonymous said...

Go to the Philippines. Study in the university only pay SG$1000 per year for all degrees, from medical to engineering. For a 3-year course including expenses, you need to pay about $4000 only.

After graduation, marry a Pinoy and get Filipino Citizenship and then return to Singapore as Foreign Talents, both husband and wife.

Then apply PR. Then work yourself up and buy a big piece of land in the Philippines and a HDB flat or condo in Singapore.

You get the best of both worlds!

Anonymous said...

When you reach 50 years old, take out all your CPF savings, return to the Philippines and build a nice house on your piece of land and retire there. In the mean time, rent out or sell your HDB flat.

Alternatively, you can retire in Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere else.

How about it? Good plan?

Anonymous said...

The current renumeration system of our political office holders & top civil servants are basically & fundamentally WRONG & deceiving.
How can top public servants renumeration baed on that of top private sector that are founded on risk-taking, business building & entreprenuership...basically its my business...i boom i boom, i died i died philosophy?
The business of a government is the People and not the Elites.
Political n public service renumeration should be linked directly to the welfare n standard of living of the population.
The key factors should be:
1. The lower the taxes n tariffs, charges, etc (costs), the higher the renumeration for public servants.
2. Higher the GDP (overall national revenue), the higher the renumeration.
3. Minister base line pay pegged to 5 to 10 times that of average of popular public n private sector jobs that represent the population eg policeman, army sergeant, secondary school teacher, staff nurse, taxi driver, bank loan officer, etc. The higher this average pay, the higher the politicians pay.
The Key is almost 100% direct alignment with the welfare & standard living of the general population.
Thr right incentives targetted the rigjt results will be acheived. The current incentives will be to milk the population n import as many FT andmilk them n the employers also.

Anonymous said...

Pressure from world's highest costs of living is alien to the PAP elite.

Chan Chun Sing declared in Parliament last Tuesday that costs of living pressures can be an expression of the gap between one’s aspirations and one’s anticipated means to fulfill them.

“No single measure will express an individual’s ‘cost of living’ pressures fully, given the different needs and wants, the evolving aspirations and the potential gap between aspirations and anticipated means,” he said.

So if one has a lot of means to fulfill one's needs and wants - eg earning multi-million dollar salary - one will not feel the high costs of living pressure.

Enlightening !!


Anonymous said...

The whole system is a fraudulent projection by those in power to deceive the labour force to produce for the needs of the small group of the unquenchable, greedy, selfish and power-crazy gang of ruthless, unscrupulous and pretendious elites.

Anonymous said...

9.45am, Knn. Will u be leading the mutiny? U are the motherfucker that encourages others to lead the cause and telling them you are behind them. Only u lead the tot hers to their death and u quickly disappeared from behind as they march forward. U quickly use both hands to squeezed your own balls if not your laughter will be detected so to avoid that u causing some pain to yourself. knn u real one motherfucker

Anonymous said...

In my workplace, the ahnehs getting salary from $3K to $12K ... got a handful pinoys getting $3K to $7K.

My salary only $5K after working for 20+ years.

All of us dealing with IT security & surveillance, network monitoring.

I just keep quiet & do my job ... sometimes even need to cover the work of some FTrashes who cock up or don't know how.

Just suck it up. At least I got the frugal & thrifty genes .... save & invest like hell all these 20+ years. Managed to have a portfolio almost $1.5M now ... giving off roughly $75K dividends per year, or $6+K per month. Over the years, I just re-invest the dividends .... compounding the growth.

Most of my stocks are US & international, and custodised in UK and Luxembourg. So my passive income machine is out of PAP hands & doesn't depend on whether Singapore fail or success.

I call this dividend machine my Fuck Off money. One day when I get too fed up with my company, I'll just throw the letter in my boss's face & fuck off.

Never bought a car. Have stayed in 4-rm HDB for last 16 years. Never upgrade or buy condo, even though my wife's salary also around $5K.

I think this is the only way to live in S'pore now .... look after yourself first .... build up safety net & passive income (overseas if possible).

Anonymous said...

fake batteries will explode itself if just charged it continuously
any hp selling shop can tell u.

Anonymous said...

Q6.35 pm, care to explain the relevant of your postings? Knn catch no ball leh unless u wanted to lend me your balls?