Technology has taken leaps and bounds in the last few decades and made great strides for the good of mankind. The AI Industrial Revolution has changed the world beyond recognition especially in the demands for talents and jobs. Yes, jobs in the new world will not be the same again. The days of 'la kopi', making the best nasi lemak or the best chicken rice could still be around but a tiny shadow of itself.
The new jobs are highly demanding of talents, real technical talents and expertise, playing with massive halls filled with computers stacked with million or billion dollar chips, not potato chips. The data centres are frightening in their complications, with wires worming everywhere, and lights flickering too, making no sense, without any indication of what they were doing. The factories that were operateing by hundreds and thousands of robots without the need for human presence are not masak, masak, not playing with toys. The people that created them, managed them, operated them, are not the simple talents coming out casually from the mouths. These are highly educated and trained experts and they are being paid in the millions or billions. Many of them are billionaires running these operations. What is running through their minds, getting the computers and machines to do the work is simply amazing. No one would dare to ask why they are being paid in the millions.
On the other hand, the old industries, the food and beverage industries, the transport industries, managing buses, trains and taxis, are still churning along, necessary, daily necessities of lives. The chicken rice operators will be here forever. The big question is, why are these people demanding to be paid in the millions? How much talent and complexities are needed to manage a supermarket, a shoe factory, a restaurant, a post office etc etc that they too should be paid in the millions? What have changed in their jobs demands, what special skills, technical skills, special training are needed to manage the industries of the past, the businesses of the past?
Should operators of chicken rice stalls, nasi lemak and kopitiams be paid in the millions? How much have their job specifications changed? How more technical demands are needed, necesssary to do these jobs? It is easy to ask to be paid in the millions. But are they justified? Have the jobs changed or day in and day out doing the same repetitive stuff?
What do you think?
3 comments:
The skill set of chicken rice seller maybe the same for generation, but the environment is different, especially the operating cost. The worst part of this million dollars symptom is the Ministers who asked to be paid million. As it causes a chain reaction downstream, which make the peasants working till they die just to feed the greedy leaders.
Keeping inflation up is to keep cost of operation up. Honestly, I do not believe that inflation is that low when everything is going up in prices by leaps and bounds. The answer is always 'still affordable'. How long is that going to last? Do these people calculating inflation ever go to eat at coffeeshops or hawker centers or do marketing?
Keeping rentals up by the use of tendering of coffee shops and food outlets means vendors pay more and just have to pass the increases on to customers. Ever wonder why so many vendors and hawkers just close their business after decades of operation during the last year and this year?
Keeping transport costs up by the use of bidding for COEs is to keep operation costs up as well for businesses. It is just like the cat chasing its tail. Salary increases are for workers to cope up with the cost-of-living which businesses have to bear, but salaries will always lag behind increases in cost of living. Business owners of food outlets can only cope the best they can until they just give up.
In Red Dot, they Government is able to continue doing all that by throwing chicken wings now and then, but the rich get richer, while the poor and retirees have no room to wriggle. Rich entrepreneurs just pass on the high rental bids to vendors who then unload the increases to customers. And the Government and every rich businessman just keep laughing all the way to the bank.
If a business operates like a chicken rice stall, day in day out doing the same repetitive chores, raising salaries is to make up with rising costs and inflation. To ask to be paid in the millions when anyone with a good mind, even without a formal education can do just as well, I don't understand. The CEOs of such business can be replaced by anyone without any special skills or technical qualifications.
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