Hsien Loong’s speech on growth

Hsien Loong’s speech to the Economic Society of Singapore has attracted critics to question some of the premises that he used. One is the soundness of our SWF and the other, the almost flogged to death horse, the need for more immigrants as the only way for growth.

I read Kenneth Jeyaretnam’s comments on how much was really left in our SWF or the possibility that we don’t really have much money in our reserves. To this I have a simple answer. Our reserves or money available for our SWF is unlimited. Our people will contribute in one way or another to ensure that the funds will always have plentiful of money. The supply is unlimited. Even dictators will be envious of our suppliers of money for our SWF. The people are happily providing the money without complaining or without knowing that they are doing so. Thus they did not even bother to know how much is there or not there. The only thing that needs to worry about is whether the people ended with any money for retirement or hospitalization.

As for more people for more growth, I think the people have not been cooperative, or not listening, or at least the Chinese and Indians. They need to support this policy by increasing the number of headcounts per household. They need to multiply more aggressively, even have more spouses if desperate measures are needed. More spouses, more children, instant growth. And if both can’t work, bring in more foreigners into their homes. The growth formula that is applicable to the country must also be applicable to households as well.

The only catch is that if one has two members living in a 1,000 sq ft flat, having four members will reduce the space per head from 500 sq ft to 250 sq ft. And if there are 10 members, each will only have 100 sq ft and this may impact on the quality of life. Then again it may not be so as some are advocating for smaller units. Dogs being quite comfortable in their little kennels are good examples to emulate. If Sinkies can be convinced to think and live like dogs, then space should not be an issue at all. Just a spot to lie down will be more than adequate.

When the Sinkies are conditioned to accept such quality of living, then having 10 member households would be a normal thing and every household will surely enjoy good growth. And if they want continuous growth then they just have to continuously make more babies to increase the number of people per household.

It is such a simple and logical solution and it is exasperating to find Sinkies unable to grasp such beautiful logic. More heads mean more growth, dummy. The farmers used to share this logic in the farms.