Friday, March 23, 2007
blog
if economical data were to be collected from the masses in singapore, the general consensus would be that the economy has undoubtedly improved, yet they are probably not as well off.
why so? they would probably note that their job security are better than during the doldrums of 2001 to 2003. also, perhaps their salary also increased. that is probably about all the good stuffs.
now onto the bad stuffs. the general increase in prices, unequal income distribution and wage increases not keeping up with price increases. perhaps it can be said that the biggest winners of this recent recovery have been the merchants and investors, those with capital. those working class in singapore has hardly felt the knock-on benefits of this boom. why? the working class has to choose between competitive wages and comfortable wages. command too high a wage and you can very well see your job being outsourced to other countries with cheaper labour costs.
yet, inflation continues to persist as companies seek to maximise profits and use the recovering economy as a justification for price increases. the result? transport fares increase, living costs increase and even taxes have become a greater source of burden to the people, especially the middle class.
the middle class singaporeans have to grapple with this issue daily, the issue of their real income decreasing. it is therefore understandable that they are unhappy about the fact that their burden becomes heavier with higher GST. This extra income from the GST raise is mostly going to fund the reduce in corporate taxes, benefitting companies with little or insignificant advantages to them, the working middle class.
there are social safety nets of course, but yet how much safety can they provide? government have always emphasized the need to look overseas for opportunities but do they know that only the more educated workers can take advantage of this? the salaries at the very top are increasing exponentially yet the salaries at the middle strata has been stagnating.
but this is singapore, where everyone encounters a change, react to it for a short while and the change slips out of public consciousness within a short time thanks to singaporean's bochap attitude and apathy for everything except about their material well-being and livelihood. the gst increase created mumblings, lip service has been paid, yet in 2008, everyone will just get used to the increased GST.
i am not advocating that singapore transform into a welfare state but there is a need for us to not forget that not everyone benefited equally from the improving economy (at least gdp-wise). instead of just MPs relaying the thoughts and opinions of the people in the parliament and ministers justifying every action, maybe it is high time for them to start putting more concrete action into place. the cash giveouts to relief the GST increases are handy but is not a long term solution. instead, they could help to freeze transport fare hikes. yes, sbs and smrt must be run efficiently like private companies but it's just inconsiderate to increase fares to keep up with inflation when the companies are posting profits. instead of distributing these profits to shareholders, use them to offset any increase in costs for a particular time period.
it is now time for the middle class to be heard strongly and for more concrete actions to be taken. as china premier wen jiabao quoted an american author, the speed of a fleet is not determined by the fastest but by the slowest.
shermon blogged @ 10:44 pm
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