Reflection on Labour Day

Labour was a big thing in the early part of the last century. The workers traded their muscles for food. They included the peasants and farmers and the industrial workers. Today we are talking about skilled workers and not much of labourers. Labourers are nearly non existent in the Singapore context. There are labourers, but mostly foreigners. This is a great achievement that we may find Labour Day a misnomer. Our workers have progressed up the skilled and economic ladder and are much more better off than in the past. In 1965, the average wages of a worker was more like $400 pm. Today it is like $800 pm with skilled workers getting $1,500 before overtime. A higher skilled worker could get $2,000 and the supervisory level about $3,000. A clerical staff was earning $400 and now $1,800. All these is good on paper if we don't factor in inflation. Are our workers that much better off than their predecessors? The biggest portion of their income has gone to housing and transportation, the basic needs. A 3 rm flat used to cost $7k and now $200k, or 30 times what it used to be. Their salary is at best 4 or 5 times what it was before. But overall, living conditions and quality of life have taken leaps and bounds for the better. The upper end of the labour curve, or the brain labour, the managers and professionals too took a bigger leap forward. Their gains are more significant, from $3k to $10k/$100k, depending on how high up one is. This professional and senior managerial group enjoys the biggest improvement in their income and lifestyle befitting that of a first world talented manpower. We have many who are very comfortable in where they are and with income equivalent to those in America and European countries. But in certain areas there are some misgivings. Our top echelon of talents is somehow still found wanting. For so many years, many of our establishments still found our locals not up to mark and the necessity to fill those positions by foreigners is still a norm. It is quite sad to see the top notch local financial professionals still unable to fit the shoes of our large local corporations. Are they duds or really that incompetent? Quite an embarrassing thought really. Why are we still unable to find our local boys and girls good enough to fill CEO positions and why are foreigners found to be better? Perhaps we should continue to celebrate Labour Day for as long as our local professionals are still regarded as labour, in a way, until the need to replace them with foreign talents is no longer needed. I wonder when that day will come or will never come. In the meantime we continue to build our local corporations into giants competing in the international arena and find suitable foreigners to run them. I wonder how our corporations could have grown to those size on local talents' contribution but then found that they have outgrown our local talents and needing foreign talents to pick up from that level. And the foreign talents rode in like knights in shining armour to teach our local boys and girls how to run the corporations that they have started and built up. They are have skills of gods acquired from heaven.

Do we need losers and rejects in Parliament?

Parliament is where the elected representatives of the people sit to discuss national issues and decide on what should be done for the good of the people. Do we then need losers, people who are rejected by the people, or people who are not elected by the people, to sit there and engage in schoolboy debate? This schoolboy debate was not coined by me. It was reported in the media. What is the point of debating when they cannot decide anything? What is the point of being in Parliament when they don't represent anyone except themselves? If they want to speak out, share their views, won't starting a blog be simpler and be sure of being heard, every word, with commas and fullstops? What kind of Parliament do we want? A Parliament of elected representatives or a make belief group of representatives representing no one?

China is doomed. What about Europe?

Everyday one cannot escape the deluge of doomsayer's reports about the imminent collapse of China. China is plagued by all kinds of enormous problems and troubles that it is only a matter of days before it falls down like a house of cards. Not only western media are at it, even local media are also at it. These are the China experts and their intelligent opinions. What about Europe? What about America? Nay, these are the world's best managed countries, and they are all in the G8 and the G20. What about the PIGS? It means Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, what's happening there? Oops, I think PIGs should be spelt PIIGS, to include Iceland. Heard that these countries are at the verge of collapse, just like the US? And some are talking about a dominoe effect when one by one, countries in the EU will just collapse. Maybe some are already except that they are not discovered, or still kept under seal. Maybe they are waiting for China to collapse first. If China does not collapse, none of the European country can collapse. China must come first.

A higher god descended on paradise

Why did we invite a higher god to mark our report cards on how well we are doing? Is it because we believe that we have done so well and the higher god will be so impressed that he will go back to the kingdom of gods with a glowing report of the fabulous job that we have done. Now our demigods are in for a little nasty surprise when the higher god is not so impressed. And some recommendations were made by the higher god on how we could do better. One of the most sensitive area touched on by the higher god is race and affirmative actions. Our feathers were ruffled for sure. Maybe our demigods would like to ask this higher god how well he did in his own backyard? Did they add 20% or 30% to the marks of their minorities so that more of them could go to universities? Or are their minorities as able and affluent as our minorities? How about their own inter racial/religious relations? Also, they may want to check the credentials of these higher gods. Do they have straight As or do they got their straight As also by affirmative actions? Higher gods that got to become gods through affirmative actions cannot hold a candle to our demigods who got their supertalent credentials on their own merits.

An interesting affordable table

New HDB flats still affordable mah! And this is the table provided by Mah Bow Tan. 2 rm $100k Median household income $1,380 3 rm $162k Median household income $2,100 4 rm $263k Median household income $4,100 5 rm $338k Median household income $5,300 Below is the price and income level in 1974 of mine. 3 rm $18k Median household income $1,500 4 rm $22k Median household income $1,800 5 rm $27.5k Median household income $2,500 Of course Mah Bow Tan is right. The flats in 1974 and the flats today are all affordable. It is how much one is paying and getting in return. Money getting smaller or quality of housing improving? The flats that the people are getting are worth every cent they paid for it, then and today. Are the life of the people getting better? Swiss standard of living in price? Is this what is meant by being better off? Maybe it is not fair to use 1974 statistics. Let’s be honest, even 1984 or 1994 statistics are not fair. We should use something more recent, like 1995 or 1996, to be relevant. I can project that in the future a $10,000 household income would probably afford only a 2 rm flat. And I will call it affordable still. As for today, a $2,500 household income could only afford a 3 rm flat while a $2,500 income could afford a 5 rm flat in the past. So please do not disagree with Mah Bow Tan that the flats are now unaffordable. He is absolutely right. The flats today are affordable and will be affordable even in the future. Maybe then for the same money one will get a dog’s kennel and pay in 100 years.