the miserables are better off

Leong Wee Keat and Gracia Chiang wrote a very interesting piece of article on the rising hope of the people at the bottom. 'Wages finally rise for the poorest households after 10 bleak years.' In 2005, monthly income for each member of the poorest household was $270. Now it is $300. A whopping 6.6% increase in real term. This is a great upliftment of the lives of the miserables. They added, 'It's not as if their wages have gone up, though. It is just that their household size is shrinking and, with the brightening economy, more of them have been able to find jobs.' Just shrink the Singaporeans and their HDB flats will become much bigger, or a mini will be as big as a Mercedes, relatively. So are they getting richer? I am still scratching my head. This is another interesting statement in their article. 'Economists said the same thing in more elegant terms.' "There were some concerns that the lower income groups wre not benefiting from globalisation and were hardest hit by overseas competition," said Citigroup's Dr Chua Hak Bin. With the results, we are finally seeing some of this growth trickling down.' Very elegantly said. What were Leong Wee Keat and Gracia Chiang actually saying?