Swee Say - minimum wage is a zero sum game

This is what Swee Say said and I fully agree with him. Setting a minimum wage is a zero sum game. When you have to make sure the low level workers be paid a minimum wage that is higher than what they are getting, it affects the overall payroll. With a cake of fixed size, the rest will have less to share.
 
I dunno if this same logic applies to the high pay and bonuses of top management. Is it also a zero sum game, that when they are paid so much, the low level workers must get less. Zero sum game is like that. The total sum is fixed, and when someone gets more, someone must get less.
 
But there are exceptions. In some circumstances, the top can get as much as they want without affecting the zero sum game formula, because the cake can be blown bigger if the supply of income is unlimited. Talented top management would know how to ensure that the money coming in is always growing and so it is alright if they are paid millions and millions. It would not affect what the low level workers would be paid. Tiok boh? The zero sum game formula thus does not apply.
 
What do you think?

Global war for talent

There is a big conference in Kuala Lumpur to extol the importance of chasing after global talents. This craze for global talents started initially in the banking and finance industry where the crooks went around the world cheating and selling fraudulent products to make huge profits for themselves, and if they made any losses the banks would have to pay for it. Many high net worth people and institutions lost big when the first bubble burst. But the scam continues today as the greed for more easy money by cheating the rich guys who think they are smart enough to make money but did not realize that they were stupid enough to be conned by these global financial talents and losing the money they made themselves.
 
this notion of global talents is spreading into other industries. The hype cannot be stopped as it is painted as the in thing, to compete for that global talents or the organization or country will lose out. It is like keeping up with the Joneses, they bought foreign talents so you too much buy some. They bought a few exotic pets, quickly get some too.
 
How many organizations really need global talents and can benefit from hiring these talents? Take the SMRT as an example, it is a local public transport company. Does it need to hire foreign talents and for what? I think the management is smart enough not to go down that road. There is no need for silly global talents to run a domestic public transport company. In fact you need local talents and local knowledge. I will fall out of my chair if they think it is necessary to put up an angmoh face to front their PR office. So far so good, that the top management are locals.
 
Even for organizations that need to compete in the international market, how many jobs really need to be filled by global talents and can benefit from their knowledge of the international scene?
 
Say for companies that operate internationally, like SIA or PSA, how many foreign talents are needed? Oh, may be the CEO needs an international team to work with him. So? Should the CEO and his top management team be forever filled by global talents? And how are the global talents made and how come global talents are always from overseas and we cannot produce our own global talents? The danger of a foreign CEO and his foreign team of top management is a recipe for disaster and forever dependent on this team. They will be entrenched and cannot be removed. Only silly shareholders will allow such a development to take place, when foreigners took the plum jobs and weed out the locals who would never be able to replace them.
 
Would our civil service and ministries benefit from having more global talents? Seriously I doubt so except to pay through their noses for talents and skills that are not needed but good to have. You want a Greek god to sit at the reception to impress the women? The other part is to deprive good jobs that should go to Sinkies. Why is there not a need to consider global talents for political office? It would be the most stupid thing to do. Only morons will flirt with such a thought and to consider having foreign talents as our national leaders, even if they are given pink ICs at the last minute to claim that they are citizens.
 
There are many GLCs that do not need foreign or global talents when the services and their products are domestic. As for the marketing of townships, do we really need global talents when most of the skills and knowledge were developed by our very own locals?
 
Oh yes, we need foreign talents for sports, for all the trophies and glories. Well, as long as we have all the more to splurge and the daft Sinkies do not protest for throwing good money for fake glories, let it be.
 
We are not what we are today because of flooding the island with foreigners. The present day foreigners are mercenaries that are here to pluck the fruits that our forefathers planted. We were selective in the past in our choice and numbers of foreigners needed. We were not so daft to take in all and sundry, fake and half baked, as our saviours. Who is the daft one?

No country, no govt, no citizen – bo cheng hu

The pathetic incident of this guy spitting at two young women at Woodlands Interchange, grabbing one of them and harassing them, is what this country has turned into, bo cheng hu. This guy went spitting at one woman after another several times each and everyone, including SMRT staff could only watch like a despicable circus act. No one could or would stand up to stop the abuse and humiliation of two women in broad daylight, in a crowded place.
 
How could such a thing happen in a first world city? I can offer only a few reasons. Everyone was so civilized except the guy who spitted at women, or everyone was so selfish, so afraid or did not know what to do or whatever. Chivalry is dead. Manhood is dead.
 
What happened could be like this. The guy could be fierce, but from the video, any medium built guy could knock him down. He was no big hunk, more like a grown up boy. Anyway, the women could also be foreigners. The people watching also could be foreigners, or most of them. Any Sinkie there, maybe a few. Even the SMRT staff in uniform could be foreigners.
 
So you have a group of foreigners in a little corner of this island watching something unpleasant happening. What to expect them to do? They are foreigners, no ownership. This is not their country, it is not their business to get involved. Why should they? And as for the Sinkies, the women could be foreigners too, so why should they bother?
 
The point is that there is no ownership. This island has so many foreigners that every other person is likely to be a foreigner. And at an interchange, the likelihood that the majority are foreigners is even higher. It is a situation of no country, no govt, no citizens. Anything can happen, who cares? No one will step forward to help anyone in distress, to defend or protect lives or properties. It is nobody’s business.
 
When there is a country, a citizenship, ownership, an identity, belonging, then there will be kampong spirit, to help each other, because we are a family, the people of a country. In a rojak situation when everyone is likely to be a foreigner, when none can identify with anyone or anything, this is what could happen. Apathy, alienation, distinterest, not my business, nothing to do with me. No one people one nation, no stand up for Singapore. This is the same as the foreigner cyclist threatening the Sinkie driver in the middle of road. In a country when the national identity is strong, the cyclist would not be seen walking or cycling again if he dared be so rude and aggressive to the citizens. In some countries they would mow him down and it would be his fault for being there. He was not supposed to be there. He did not belong there.
 
We are looking every bit like a failed nation. Yes we are just a city with no identity, not a country or a nation. Nobody cares for anyone except when their interests are directly affected.

Studio flats versus 2 rm flats

The big price gap between these two types of flats came up for questioning in Parliament. Boon Wan rightly said that one cannot compare apples with lemons. This really sums up what were at stake and the perceived unsatisfactory pricing. Some felt that the oldies were ripped off by paying so much for their studio flats and with so many strings attached. But then they should be happy that they were getting apples instead of lemons. Those getting lemons should not complain as the pricing was just right for lemons.
 
Putting this aside, the best thing coming out from the discussion is the kind of profits that studio flats could generate for HDB. In the first place the pricing for the first owner was already very high compared to the 2 rm flats. I think HDB must be making a big loss from such a sale. My apologies for the contradiction.
 
After 30 years, HDB would have to repossess the flat, upgrade and refurbish it, and sell it at what kind of price, you can make your guess. It is going to make another big loss I think, if the same way of reasoning applies. And the same flat would have another round to go, to be upgraded, refurbished and sold a third time to another oldie at even higher price, due to inflation and of course upgrading. And of course, HDB is going to lose another huge sum of money for reselling it a third time.
 
For whatever reasoning and whatever sum of huge losses, I wish that I could be the developer to build and sell these flats with the same terms. I don’t mind making all the huge losses for the good of the people.

Termination of a train driver, a Sinkie

We have heard the story of the termination of a train driver after 18 years of service. Gintai did not explain exactly why but I gathered it was due to some minor mistakes he made. What actually went wrong is not the issue in this article. What I want to address is where should a Sinkie go from here.
 
Gintai was with the Police Force before he became a train driver and had chalked up 18 years of experience on this job. He is about 50 and still has many good years to go even if he does not intend to work till 80.
 
From the company’s point of view, has Gintai committed mistakes serious enough that it was necessary to lose a very experienced train driver with many good years ahead? What is the opportunity cost to hire and train another driver? The new driver could be cheaper without taking the training cost into account. There are opportunity costs involved as well as opportunity to save some money for the company. They can’t be hiring a more experience and higher pay train driver for sure.
 
The other point is that a Sinkie lost his job, hopefully not to another foreigner to be trained to take his place. Now what shall Gintai do, what are his options if he intends to work again? I think at his age, not working is not an option. We also know that getting a job is a near impossible task.
 
First, there is only one train company here, so there is no chance of Gintai driving trains again. Neither can he return to the Police Force. If he is to remain in the city, his next job is probably driving taxi. For Gintai to look for any other jobs, retraining is necessary. And he is likely to get a job that would pay him less than his current basic, without the overtime pay. He probably has school going children and a housing mortgage to provide for. He needs an income.
 
The alternative for Gintai is just not too rosy. The net effect is for the train industry and the train company to lose a trained and very experienced driver. And this driver has to start anew in a new job in a new industry. It is a waste of trained manpower. We value our workforce. Our workforce is our main asset. We foolishly wasted a trained worker who would have to downgrade to do something he has no experience in.
 
On the whole it is a lose lose situation. Maybe the train company will gain by getting a cheaper and new train driver. And a new driver is born. Very likely a foreigner. Sinkies better be nice to their employers and don’t make mistakes to warrant a dismissal. The consequence is dire straits, and nobody will be there to help you, no institution or organisation will be behind you, except Gilbert.