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?