Improve SG's Productivity: Wean Businesses of Cheap Labour

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

I was at Parkway Parade this morning and saw that Giant has changed Opening hour from 9am to 10am because of tight labour. This is good for productivity. Supermarkets were able to open 24hrs and open at 8am because they had an abundance of cheap labour. Singapore should wean businesses of cheap labour so that we don't need too many cheap labour to work in Singapore.

Besides supermarkets, other industries which can improve productivity are:

1. Construction companies
2. Petrol stations
3. Factories
etc

They can reduce cheap labour by restructuring work processes, reorganise work flows.

Even with reduced foreign manpower, SG can still achieve more than what it is doing now.

Does the PAP have the courage to stand up to businesses, MNCs, SG International Chamber of Commerce, etc and compel them to reduce manpower needs?

xebay11 · Jun 19, 2015

It is not cheap labour but cheap staff and executives that are taking away jobs, cheap labour are wanted and needed in every country.

yellowarse · Jun 19, 2015

First, it's wean ... off.

The 2 main reasons why local businesses are hooked on cheap labour:

1. Lack of minimum wage legislation
2. High land pricing, resulting in high rental overheads. Higher rent means less wages for workers.

If you go to Switzerland, the UK or US, workers have much higher wages there, even though cost of living is as high as in Singapore. But rental overheads are much lower, except in the city area. All your work flow restructuring can only do so much when 50% of your revenues go into land overheads.

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

xebay11 said:
It is not cheap labour but cheap staff and executives that are taking away jobs, cheap labour are wanted and needed in every country.

Cheap labour includes cheap staff, cheap workers and cheap executives.

Doubly bad when some cheap staff and cheap executives are not qualified or have fake qualifications. This can jepopardise quality

Triple bad if cheap workers are not skilled or not trained or fake skills. This can kill damage or kill as they build buildings with defects eg JEM

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

yellowarse said:
First, it's wean ... off.

The 2 main reasons why local businesses are hooked on cheap labour:

1. Lack of minimum wage legislation
2. High land pricing, resulting in high rental overheads. Higher rent means less wages for workers.

If you go to Switzerland, the UK or US, workers have much higher wages there, even though cost of living is as high as in Singapore. But rental overheads are much lower, except in the city area. All your work flow restructuring can only do so much when 50% of your revenues go into land overheads.

Thanks. Yes, wean off :smile:

The main reason local businesses are hooked on cheap labour is pap's lack of wisdom and misgovernance

congo9 · Jun 19, 2015

If Super market can't operate 24 hours, then it will be bad for the rent seeking landlord. Imagine, i can't increase my rental because of limited sales timing for my tenants. It is certainly no good.

yellowarse · Jun 19, 2015

congo9 said:
If Super market can't operate 24 hours, then it will be bad for the rent seeking landlord. Imagine, i can't increase my rental because of limited sales timing for my tenants. It is certainly no good.

The PAP has converted Singapore's economy into a rentier economy. All the other problems of low productivity, low wages, high reliance on cheap foreign labour, low innovation, stunted SME sector, etc flow from this fundamental problem of the rentier state.

Hazem Al Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani suggested four characteristics of a rentier state:

Rent situations predominate.
The economy relies on a substantial external rent – and therefore does not require a strong domestic productive sector.
Only a small proportion of the working population is actually involved in the generation of the rent.
Perhaps most importantly, the state’s government is the principal recipient of the external rent.[SUP][4][/SUP]

Seee3 · Jun 19, 2015

Too late. It all started when they let in the maids, the cheapest form of labour for doing mundane household chores. It produced a generation of young adults who can't clean or tidy their own house, wash their own dishes nor do their own laundry. How can we expect them to take up a job that requires 8 hours of work per day. So they let in cheap labour to take up vacancies for simple jobs and it has progressed to replacing PMET today.

Maids are like drug. If used with control, it can make life better. However, if one abused it, we will loose the ability for hard work. Unfortunately, that seems to be most of the cases here.

frenchbriefs · Jun 19, 2015

does PAP have the courage to stand up to the businesses,the MNCs,the international chamber of commerce?LMAO PAP is the businesses,PAP needs the money,they want the money,they need the corporate taxes coming from these MNCs,billions and billions of it,they are hooked on cheap labour,who do you think runs all their businesses for them?from singtel sales to customer services,who drives their buses and trains?who cleans their tables and cooks their dishes in the food courts and restaurants?who works in their NTUC supermarkets?who builds all the hdbs and roads and infrastructure for them?CHEAPER BETTER FASTER.LMAO thats like asking if a drug addict has the courage to say no to drugs when u pour unlimited amount of cocaine and LSD and ketamine pills in front of them,thats like asking if a alchoholic has the courage to say no when u give them a unlimited free flow of beer and johnny walker?

imagine u have this wonderful business with 5 million slaves in it,working night and day to print you money,doing all kinds of stuff doesnt matter whether its legal or not,moral or not,cause u make all the rules and you are the law and,do you have the courage to say no and do the right thing?say no to the billions?send away 1 million of your slaves?

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

congo9 said:
If Super market can't operate 24 hours, then it will be bad for the rent seeking landlord. Imagine, i can't increase my rental because of limited sales timing for my tenants. It is certainly no good.

Is it cost effective for the supermarket to open 24hrs if there is no cheap labour? Cheap labour's comes with social costs which is passed to the community

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

yellowarse said:
The PAP has converted Singapore's economy into a rentier economy. All the other problems of low productivity, low wages, high reliance on cheap foreign labour, low innovation, stunted SME sector, etc flow from this fundamental problem of the rentier state.

Hazem Al Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani suggested four characteristics of a rentier state:

Rent situations predominate.

The economy relies on a substantial external rent – and therefore does not require a strong domestic productive sector.

Only a small proportion of the working population is actually involved in the generation of the rent.

Perhaps most importantly, the state’s government is the principal recipient of the external rent.[SUP][4][/SUP]

Very wise! Thank you. Unless SG weans businesses off cheap labour, SG will be stuck in the low productivity with non innovative economy

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

Seee3 said:
Too late. It all started when they let in the maids, the cheapest form of labour for doing mundane household chores. It produced a generation of young adults who can't clean or tidy their own house, wash their own dishes nor do their own laundry. How can we expect them to take up a job that requires 8 hours of work per day. So they let in cheap labour to take up vacancies for simple jobs and it has progressed to replacing PMET today.

Maids are like drug. If used with control, it can make life better. However, if one abused it, we will loose the ability for hard work. Unfortunately, that seems to be most of the cases here.

Agree. Cheap labour can be very addicted.

The maid issue will come back to haunt SG when a generation of kids brought up by maids become adults.

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

frenchbriefs said:
does PAP have the courage to stand up to the businesses,the MNCs,the international chamber of commerce?LMAO PAP is the businesses,PAP needs the money,they want the money,they need the corporate taxes coming from these MNCs,billions and billions of it,they are hooked on cheap labour,who do you think runs all their businesses for them?from singtel sales to customer services,who drives their buses and trains?who cleans their tables and cooks their dishes in the food courts and restaurants?who works in their NTUC supermarkets?who builds all the hdbs and roads and infrastructure for them?CHEAPER BETTER FASTER.LMAO thats like asking if a drug addict has the courage to say no to drugs when u pour unlimited amount of cocaine and LSD and ketamine pills in front of them,thats like asking if a alchoholic has the courage to say no when u give them a unlimited free flow of beer and johnny walker?

imagine u have this wonderful business with 5 million slaves in it,working night and day to print you money,doing all kinds of stuff doesnt matter whether its legal or not,moral or not,cause u make all the rules and

That's why I said the pap has to be voted out for the sake of Singaporeans

frenchbriefs · Jun 19, 2015

TracyTan866 said:
That's why I said the pap has to be voted out for the sake of Singaporeans

it doesnt matter whether the PAP is voted out or not,in the end we are all slaves to greed.in america its the same,their senate and politicians are all paid for and owned by corporations.corporations that lobbies and pay them millions and millions to change the law in their favour,the change the tax rates,to pass bills and regulations to make it more "favourable" for them to conduct business.here its worse cause PAP are the corporations themselves,they dont have to bribe anyone,they control the laws,pass the bills,make the policies,control the unions and the press,they can import anyone they want.PAP is the ultimate in capitalism and the personification of greed.

u can say its only the system and the government thats poisoned,but its everywhere,greed.iv seen it with my own eyes,iv know people and met singaporeans,ordinary singaporeans who start their own small businesses,whose only goal and concern night and day is how they can squeeze every single drop out of you,every single dollar and cent,and how they can pass on every cost to the consumer,the customer,every excuse they make,every button they push just to see if they can go a little further,make another dollar.the most stingiest people,who give the barest minimum level of service,and the lowest standard of products and goods,and expect the highest compensation and tips.

congo9 · Jun 19, 2015

TracyTan866 said:
Is it cost effective for the supermarket to open 24hrs if there is no cheap labour? Cheap labour's comes with social costs which is passed to the community

It is not being cost effective that is important. It is whether the landlord can collect higher rental year after year without ceasing. What is social cost to the Businessmen masquerading as Government ? There isn't such a term in their line Job scope as long as you can socialised the cost and privatised the profit.

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

frenchbriefs said:
it doesnt matter whether the PAP is voted out or not,in the end we are all slaves to greed.in america its the same,their senate and politicians are all paid for and owned by corporations.corporations that lobbies and pay them millions and millions to change the law in their favour,the change the tax rates,to pass bills and regulations to make it more "favourable" for them to conduct business.here its worse cause PAP are the corporations themselves,they dont have to bribe anyone,they control the laws,pass the bills,make the policies,control the unions and the press,they can import anyone they want.PAP is the ultimate in capitalism and the personification of greed.

u can say its only the system and the government thats poisoned,but its everywhere,greed.iv seen it with my own eyes,iv know people and met singaporeans,ordinary singaporeans who start their own small businesses,whose only goal and concern night and day is how they can squeeze every single drop out of you,every single dollar and cent,and how they can pass on every cost to the consumer,the customer,every excuse they make,every button they push just to see if they can go a little further,make another dollar.the most stingiest people,who give the barest minimum level of service,and the lowest standard of products and goods,and expect the highest compensation and tips.

Three simple questions:

1. Is LHL leading SG on the right path?
2. Is the future of SG bright under the pap now?
3. Should we vote out the pap?

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

congo9 said:
It is not being cost effective that is important. It is whether the landlord can collect higher rental year after year without ceasing. What is social cost to the Businessmen masquerading as Government ? There isn't such a term in their line Job scope as long as you can socialised the cost and privatised the profit.

SG is a country. Why shd the pap think of just the businessmen and landlords?

The PAP shd think of Singapore and Singaporeans

Seee3 · Jun 19, 2015

TracyTan866 said:
Agree. Cheap labour can be very addicted.

The maid issue will come back to haunt SG when a generation of kids brought up by maids become adults.

The present generation of young adults joining the workforce are already from the first "maids' generation". They may have just joined a company but will not hesitate to send whatsapp to inform that they are seeing doc without producing mc and eventually not reporting for work totally. They complaint of low pay and mundane job, which is true. However, with an ITE cert, how much can an employer pay them and even if with higher qualification, what sophisticated job can they perform without having accumulated the relevant experience.

They were so accustomed to maids doing chores for them. How can they accept it if they were made to run errands? Many end up living their dreams of becoming rich like running their own business be it blogshop, cafe , bakery ... (parents got money). However, without the right attitude, success stories are few.

TracyTan866 · Jun 19, 2015

Seee3 said:
The present generation of young adults joining the workforce are already from the first "maids' generation". They may have just joined a company but will not hesitate to send whatsapp to inform that they are seeing doc without producing mc and eventually not reporting for work totally. They complaint of low pay and mundane job, which is true. However, with an ITE cert, how much can an employer pay them and even if with higher qualification, what sophisticated job can they perform without having accumulated the relevant experience.

They were so accustomed to maids doing chores for them. How can they accept it if they were made to run errands? Many end up living their dreams of becoming rich like running their own business be it blogshop, cafe , bakery ... (parents got money). However, without the right attitude, success stories are few.

This is the result of raising kids using cheap labour.

I spent some time overseas and I didn't see American mothers or Australian mothers delegating their responsibilities to a stranger maid.

We may raise a whole generation of young adults who don't know much abt parenting skills, cooking and housework.

Ambulance · Jun 19, 2015

TracyTan866 said:
SG is a country. Why shd the pap think of just the businessmen and landlords?

The PAP shd think of Singapore and Singaporeans

halo ah shum gung sg si city um si kok ga leh

Improve SG's Productivity: Wean Businesses of Cheap Labour

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