Inflation up 2% next year

Johnson Choo wrote in Today about inflation probably hitting a record 2% next year. Statistically, depending on the formula and the basket of goods, the number may be right. But with 2% increase in GST and the way prices are shooting to the sky, who will ever believe that inflation is only 2%? This morning I bought a pack of horse hoof pastry, made in Malaysia, in pink plastic bag without brand. It costs $4! It was only a couple of months back when it cost $2.20. I took out both my hands and try to use my fingers to count how many percent increase was that. Even with my toes, still not even for the change. Anyone still believe that everything is ok? Johnson added, 'Even so, to the man in the street, the pinch may feel harder than the cold inflation numbers would indicate.' The GST offset will definitely help the poorer Singaporeans. Their life is getting better.

Myth 154

Professional, Ethical and Honourable Managers LKY recently talked about good leaders being men of honour who will mean what they said and deliver what they said. What he said is basically the qualities of a decent man which can also be seen as the good qualities of managers. How do Singaporean managers fair in these 3 criteria? There are definitely the good and the bad managers. I have seen many who are neither professional, ethical nor honourable. An ethical manager is expected to make decisions that are ethically correct and fair to their employees and staff. They cannot short change or cheat their employees. That is a fundamental requirement not only of managers but any decent man in any position. And at times when decisions came from the top, from head office, that are ethically or morally wrong, as professional managers, they must say no to them, reason it out with HQ that the decisions are bad decisions. Many choose to keep quiet and follow the orders. Not to rock the boat. Why should they. Not sure if you can call them smart managers. The third point is of honour. Any man that is worth being called a man must honour what he said. How often when confronted with what they said, many managers will pretend that they are dumbfounded. What? Who said that? I never said that! They will not even remember what they said or committed. And one good way to prevent themselves from being caught and can't back out from it is not to have anything in writing. Not even minutes of meetings. Definitely not in emails also. The best summary for such managers is the 3K Manager, Kiasu, Kiasi and Kiamistake. They are anything but professional, ethical and honourable.

Time to cane teachers and principals

Read about the case of a foreign student being taunted and bullied until he broke down. First time student was counselled and bullies punished. Not sure how serious was the punishment but it seemed that the bullies were having a great time bullying the student again. This time the poor student went berserk and attacked the bully again. Even after that he was uncontrollable. It was obvious that the bullying was not a simple case of friendly taunting between pals. Things were thrown at the student and all kinds of unfriendly and insulting remarks were used to attack him. How could this be allowed to go on and on to the point where the poor student could go mad? This is uttterly irresponsible on the part of the teachers and principle. They should be caned in the assembly hall. It is so shameful that our education system can allowed such abuses to go on and on and hurt a student physically, mentally and emotionally. The experience is so traumatic for a young man that is growing up. He will grow up hating all those he met here and Singapore.

Myth 153 Annual increment

Annual increment In compensation for employees, people have taken it for granted that there must be an annual increment every year, good time or bad time. So every employee expects some kinds of increment as if it is an entitlement. Only during really bad time that annual increment could be waived. This expectation is quite natural given the fact that many employees are being paid just about enough to keep them alive. They needed the monthly salary to live on, without much savings to last more than a couple of months. And with inflation and rises in the prices of everything, if there is no increment, they are actually getting worst off. They may be getting the same income, but lower purchasing power. Thus, an annual increment to a large extent will help to maintain a certain standard of living and purchasing power. Now this expectation is being extended to the CEOs and top management whose compensation package is not only huge beyond imagination, but also with all kinds of perks and incentives. Even these turkeys expect a payrise every year when the cost of living really hardly affect their lifestyle. Then the other fallacy is to peg annual increments in percentage terms. You can imagine how much is 10% to someone whose income is $1 million or $10 million. This is the myth in human resource compensation that has been perpetuated and will be likely to be continued forever. After all the CEOs are not going to say no. More likely they will insist that the practice should be continued in their best interests.

Hospital bills up by 10% to 30%

Across the board increases of hospital bills from 2005 to 2006. Average bill size of C wards gone up from $858 to $1112, B2 wards from $1094 to $1,284, B1 from $2,736 to $3193 and A wards from $3473 to $3830. Maybe should take the numbers with a pinch of salt and wait for someone to verify that they are accurate, huh? And 1% of C ward patients paid $9,071 while B2 paid $8.813. Now this definitely requires more checking as the numbers are unnatural and unbecoming. The good news is that all these are still affordable. And the Boon Wan is looking closely at it to monitor and manage the inflation of medical costs. Who is causing the inflation? Although they are claimed to be privately run hospitals, operating for profit I supposed, they are in many ways a monopoly or a cartel. Can anyone force them to increase their cost and fees?