A few days ago, there was a report about 1 in 20 Singaporeans becoming millionaires in a few yrs. Shortly after that NUS researchers released a report on a growing number of working poor and rising poverty
in Singapore.
The Singapore story is an amazing one if you just look superficially at the economic
development. Within one generation, we have a per capita income higher than USA
and Germany. What did we do to get here?
What is important in human systems is usually not the amount of wealth you acquire in one generation
but sustainability. What have you traded off to acquire that wealth is even more important than the wealth itself because it will determine if you can sustain it. You can make more money by working 15 hours a day like some taxi drivers but the health risk is higher and very soon you're forced to stop. Similarly Singapore's meteoric economic rise has to be examine for tradeoffs to determine its sustainability:
1. Authoritarianism / lack of Democratic freedom. Basically to attract foreign investments, there was a need for discipline obedient populace, hence the PAP suppress the opposition, undermined fair elections, control newspapers, shutdown political activism to evolve a top.down system of bureaucracy.
2. Suppression of rights including worker's rights and human rights to tilt the balance in favor of capitalists and businesses. Of course the pap did not stop there they went further to allow the import of cheap labor to improve corporate profits.
3. Formation of large monopolistic GLCs and formulation of polices that favors these companies.
4. Imposing a regressive tax regime so that taxes on corporations are kept low while people are taxed on GST. Low progressive tax led to underspending in healthcare and elderly. Many Singaporeans cannot retire.
5. The economic growth is kept up in recent yrs by building casinos, property speculative bubble and growth of the money lending business( both legal and illegal) . The debt load now is one of the highest in Asia.
6. Nurturing of an elite privileged class through scholarship, opportunities, grooming ....previously it was merely to have some educated competent people in public service to run things. Now it is a class of privilege people
fed on entitlements.
Singapore is facing a dire outcome as the PAP run its system to an inevitable end with a society torn apart by deep inequality Morality and ethics eroded along wih rights and freedom, Doing what is pragmatic ad economically expedient rather than what is morally correct has a price, Making the elderly work until old age is morally wrong while economically beneficial but the tradeoff is when we see them we see ourselves iin 40 yrs time...so we will reject a system that put them in that state,
In a high inequality environment people will resent the privilege elites and be unforgiving for their errors. If workers are paid so little for the hard work they do, they expect those who are paid 50 times what they are paid to do their job. The frustration is high when they fail to fix problems be it transport of housing. Trust is gone.
PAP thinks it can keep this type of system going and it is a mistake to think so. From their narrow perspective and because they are at the apex enjoying the power and financial benefits, they will never understand the resentment on the ground, ..this system is seen as highly unjust and exploitative. All their schrmss CPF, COE, ERP are viewed negatively as extractive in nature to benefit the few from the struggle of the many.
History has shown their kind of system can succeed quickly and fail rapidly ....central pillars that hold up stable societies justice, equality,, democracy are all missing . We have a society held up by the the rotting foundation of elitism, capitalism, authoritarianism ...it will deteriorate or collapse.
in Singapore.
The Singapore story is an amazing one if you just look superficially at the economic
development. Within one generation, we have a per capita income higher than USA
and Germany. What did we do to get here?
What is important in human systems is usually not the amount of wealth you acquire in one generation
but sustainability. What have you traded off to acquire that wealth is even more important than the wealth itself because it will determine if you can sustain it. You can make more money by working 15 hours a day like some taxi drivers but the health risk is higher and very soon you're forced to stop. Similarly Singapore's meteoric economic rise has to be examine for tradeoffs to determine its sustainability:
1. Authoritarianism / lack of Democratic freedom. Basically to attract foreign investments, there was a need for discipline obedient populace, hence the PAP suppress the opposition, undermined fair elections, control newspapers, shutdown political activism to evolve a top.down system of bureaucracy.
2. Suppression of rights including worker's rights and human rights to tilt the balance in favor of capitalists and businesses. Of course the pap did not stop there they went further to allow the import of cheap labor to improve corporate profits.
3. Formation of large monopolistic GLCs and formulation of polices that favors these companies.
4. Imposing a regressive tax regime so that taxes on corporations are kept low while people are taxed on GST. Low progressive tax led to underspending in healthcare and elderly. Many Singaporeans cannot retire.
5. The economic growth is kept up in recent yrs by building casinos, property speculative bubble and growth of the money lending business( both legal and illegal) . The debt load now is one of the highest in Asia.
6. Nurturing of an elite privileged class through scholarship, opportunities, grooming ....previously it was merely to have some educated competent people in public service to run things. Now it is a class of privilege people
fed on entitlements.
Singapore is facing a dire outcome as the PAP run its system to an inevitable end with a society torn apart by deep inequality Morality and ethics eroded along wih rights and freedom, Doing what is pragmatic ad economically expedient rather than what is morally correct has a price, Making the elderly work until old age is morally wrong while economically beneficial but the tradeoff is when we see them we see ourselves iin 40 yrs time...so we will reject a system that put them in that state,
In a high inequality environment people will resent the privilege elites and be unforgiving for their errors. If workers are paid so little for the hard work they do, they expect those who are paid 50 times what they are paid to do their job. The frustration is high when they fail to fix problems be it transport of housing. Trust is gone.
PAP thinks it can keep this type of system going and it is a mistake to think so. From their narrow perspective and because they are at the apex enjoying the power and financial benefits, they will never understand the resentment on the ground, ..this system is seen as highly unjust and exploitative. All their schrmss CPF, COE, ERP are viewed negatively as extractive in nature to benefit the few from the struggle of the many.
History has shown their kind of system can succeed quickly and fail rapidly ....central pillars that hold up stable societies justice, equality,, democracy are all missing . We have a society held up by the the rotting foundation of elitism, capitalism, authoritarianism ...it will deteriorate or collapse.
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