11/28/2015

Greed is the slippery road to ignominy

Can Singapore continue to flourish as it goes down the slippery road of greed? The Americans could do it, paying their CEOs and top management hundreds of millions and still sustainable, but for how long? There are some factors that allowed the Americans to bathe themselves with money, the greenback as the international currency and the money printing machine and the fraudulent financial market and industry that are trading junk bonds and worthless derivatives. But all the signs are there that the end is near.

Singapore is a tiny little red dot. Can Singapore survive by paying its top people millions of dollars for being unproductive? Think how costly it is to support a bunch of unproductive people at the top, the board of directors, the CEOs and the top management? How productive are these people, what is their contribution to the revenue and bottom line?

On top of this multi million dollar payout, there are the very high cost of land and transportation. Added together, how many businesses can survive, be they private or public, public private or private public? When the cost to keep the top management happy is so high, where is the money coming from? There is no free lunch, someone must pay.

In order to keep paying, either cost must be cut or revenue must go up. In the finance industry, just look at what they are doing to make money? All the rules of good governance, of ethics and morality, of transparency and accountability have been broken. They even break their own rules and regulations on good practices. Selling snake oils, selling toxic products, selling fake notes, selling gambling chits, cheating, frauds, lack of transparency, allowing computers to trade against the masses, whatever that is not permissible by the law, are all acceptable and marketable.

We are not like the Americans with a lot of cushion to absorb all the indulgence and extravagance, before the American economy collapses, our economy will go down first. A house of cards cannot withstand the gust of wind. One big huff and all will be blown away. How could so few feed so many at the top with so many millions for doing so little? They are desperate and are resorting to foul tactics and practices to find the money to pay themselves, gambling, cheatings, deceits, frauds, crimes etc etc.


Sustainable? You tell me.

16 comments:

  1. As usual, redbean has written about a good topic
    - but as usual, redbean misses the point.
    - let me show you point by point

    "Can Singapore survive by paying its top people millions of dollars for being unproductive?"

    - the top people who decides how much they pay themselves
    - do you think their survival depends on Singapore when they are being paid millions of dollars in salary every year?
    - if Singapore cannot survive, do you think they care?
    - when you have money, can you travel to any part of the world and "survive" without Singapore and Singaporeans?

    Does anybody remember David Lim?
    Former PAP Minister and Former CEO of NOL
    After leaving the cabinet and after leaving NOL
    Has anyone heard that he is may be living in Australia?

    Do you think David Lim needs Singapore and Singaporeans to survive?

    http://www.singapore-window.org/sw03/030616bt.htm

    ReplyDelete
  2. // Does anybody remember David Lim?
    Former PAP Minister and Former CEO of NOL
    After leaving the cabinet and after leaving NOL
    Has anyone heard that he is may be living in Australia?//


    Aiya, david lim different mah ....

    Current CEO or MD pak see bo chow ?

    Maybe next tour of duty after NOL is ...... Gee-Eye-See?

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ November 28, 2015 9:33 a.m.

    And yet the daft 70% continue to vote and support the status quo.
    Chinese people are generally trusting and stupid people.
    Like redbean, many Chinese will sacrifice themselves and their families for the "greater good of the country".

    The millions of stupid Chinese peasants, thousands of years ago
    They sacrificed their lives building the Great Wall of China.
    For the greater good of China.
    While the Chinese Emperor lived in comfort ("sacrificed himself") in the Imperial Palace.

    Are Singaporeans today just as stupid as their Chinese ancestors thousands of years ago?
    What do you think?

    ReplyDelete

  4. HIGH-COST-HIGH-PAY (HCHP) MODEL

    The High-Cost-High-Pay (HCHP) model we are adopting for the general
    masses is unlikely to be sustainable.

    The model may be ok for those within the HCHP bracket.

    But, there are lots of people that fell outside the HCHP bracket.

    The most worrying trend is that there may be more and more people
    falling outside the HCHP bracket.

    What are we going to do with this increasing masses?

    Will the Govt help?

    How much and how long will they help?

    Like riding a bicycle, you fall if you stop!

    Will the future be wonderful or will it be painful?

    We shall see.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ November 28, 2015 9:53 a.m
    /// The most worrying trend is that there may be more and more people
    falling outside the HCHP bracket. What are we going to do with this increasing masses? ///

    70% of Singaporeans say it is not worrying.
    70% of Singaporeans say no need to do anything.

    And even better.
    The Leeders who got 60% mandate in GE 2011.
    They asked for a "stronger mandate" in GE 2015.
    They think that they can do a better job with a stronger mandate.

    The Leeders think a "strong mandate" is the solution.
    70% of Singaporeans also think a strong mandate is the solution.

    So now we have a "strong mandate".
    Let's see how Singaporeans lives are going to get better (ha ha).
    See.
    With a strong mandate, MRT trains have stopped breaking down already.

    ReplyDelete
  6. " When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. "
    Frédéric Bastiat
    https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat

    "What's wrong with collecting more money"
    Lee Kuan Yew
    https://www.facebook.com/TheNewEraSingapore/posts/611369322249177

    Who is more correct?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Who is Best Qualified to Decide how How Your Wealth Should be Used?
    =====================================================================

    Consider how insulting it is!
    Why is the president of the country better qualified than we are to determine where our resources will do the most good?
    Why are members of Congress or local politicians?
    Who on earth do these folks think they are?

    In the past it used to be thought that certain folks in society had special qualifications to allocate the wealth that has been produced as well as to make most of the important decisions in need of being made.
    Kings, lords, barons, and such knew better than the paeans – you and I – as to what our labors ought to fund. Ergo, taxation and other takings!

    Don’t you see how nasty this is, how it impugns our capabilities to be prudent, careful, sensible, wise and so forth?

    Advocates of government wealth redistribution blatantly insult the rest of us by denying us the good sense it takes to spend our wealth.
    Wealth redistribution means exactly that.
    Somehow we need to be coerced – or nudged or intimidated – into doing what these bullies have decided needs to be supported with our wealth.

    Why? Who are these people?

    In the past there was an excuse – by sheer birth certain folks, coming from certain families or classes or whatever – had the qualification to manage our wealth and indeed us as well.

    But that is sheer prejudice! They really have no more clue than you or I about where to spend the funds we have come by!


    http://www.acting-man.com/?p=41618

    ReplyDelete
  8. redbean posits:

    >> Can Singapore continue to flourish as it goes down the slippery road of greed? <<

    Of course it can. "Greed" is purely an aspect of human nature. It is neither good or bad, and its judgement resides purely in the minds of individuals who are doing the judging. There is no such "thing" as ABSOLUTE morality. Of course people can "make up" absolute anything-they-like, but it doesn't change the fact that these "things" are purely abstract and derivatives of other ideas....i.e. they are not derived from anything "physical" in the world.

    >> Sustainable? <<

    If you can "sustain" yourself i.e. "to each his own, you die your business" then the answer is OF COURSE it is sustainable.

    Get real: some will prosper in reaping largesses of unimaginable proportions, some will do "OK", and some will crash and burn like a Russian plane over Turkey or Sinai.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rb // They are desperate and are resorting to foul tactics and practices to find the money to pay themselves, gambling, cheatings, deceits, frauds, crimes etc etc. //

    Some are willing to do many things to look good or appear to look good.

    Some naturally, without a tinge of guilt, feel that they deserve to consume 100 to 1000 times more resources than other people in anything and everything.

    And some falsely think they are like mother Theresa and a saviour when they live like kings and possess assets enough to last tens of generations.

    These include many who may appear to be with sinkies but stay in at least $50 million 25,000 sq ft good class bungalows off Holland Road etc.

    How can those who live like kings and/ or choose to be like one of them empathise with what a pauper or a 1-room rental flat family goes through day in day out or even every hour or half an hour?

    How can one really empathise and able to uplift the masses by staying in a palace-like abode and viewing the world or masses through the lenses from the angle and/ or vantage point of a palace-like abode?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rb // On top of this multi million dollar payout, there are the very high cost of land and transportation. Added together, how many businesses can survive, be they private or public, public private or private public? When the cost to keep the top management happy is so high, where is the money coming from? There is no free lunch, someone must pay.//

    The excuse for selling NOL is the tough business environment.

    But this is hilarious.

    If the same logic applies, the SIA also should be sold?

    Some things do not square?

    Or is it some excuse or snake oil spins do not square?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Selling Sg's iconic shipping line NOL is akin to selling Sg's iconic flagship airline SIA?

      Isn't air travel business as tough if not worst than shipping business at times?

      Was the right person put in charge based on merit?

      Next time any Papigs mention one more word of meritocrazy should deserve one tight slap?

      Or one pail of sewerage from the foreigners dorm inverted over their head in the midst of their speech on stage?

      Delete
    2. Exile to planet Mars?

      To repent?

      And ruminate?

      Delete
    3. Whatsapp a UFO to fly them there?

      Delete
  11. // How could so few feed so many at the top with so many millions for doing so little? //

    Can lah?

    Colonise planet Jupiter?

    And bring back the resources to feed the JLBS?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rb // Sustainable? //


    Yes?

    Just deploy all the "one shot one kill" toys?

    To planet Pluto and bring back all the raw materials?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rb // When the cost to keep the top management happy is so high, where is the money coming from? //


    Get the central banks in planet Uranus to embark on QE ( quantitative easing ) and print lots and lots of currencies to pay for everything and anything?

    Problems solved?

    Eazi, peezi?

    ReplyDelete