This is the Golden Age, says MM
Where's my Golden Goose?
Hundreds of Singaporeans and foreigners are fueling the property market boom. Profits from en bloc sales, speculation, a bullish market. Feeling anxious about being left behind?
By Ng Tze Yong
July 12, 2007
YOUR mother's advice, passed down from when Grandpa arrived as a poor immigrant, might not hold true anymore.
Work hard, she nags. Spend frugally.
Her advice, sound and sensible in her time, is now looking bit frayed in a investment-driven world where a few key strokes can make the rich even richer.
A recent study showed that the wealth of the world's super-rich soared last year at the fastest rate in seven years.
How come? As the old saying goes, it's the (new) economy, stupid.
In the new world, money begets more money. Forget business ideas. Forget inventions. Forget hard work; make your money work hard.
But first, you need the C that precedes the other five - Capital.
The new masters of the universe - the hedge fund managers - will tell you as much.
To make this year's list of the 25 highest paid hedge fund managers, published by Alpha magazine, you have to make $365 million.
That's not rich. We're not talking Benz here; we're talking Lear Jets. That's super-rich.
'They're a group that has sprinted ahead of the merely-rich pack,' said sociologist Terence Chong.
As if one income gap wasn't enough, we now have to worry about getting left behind, twice over.
In a column last week, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) called this a 'tectonic shift'.
There's an 'uneasy feeling that something is going on here', wrote the writer, referring to London.
Half a world away, that 'something' seems to be going on too.
There are 66,660 millionaires on this small island. We have the fastest-growing population of millionaires in the world. Every en-bloc sale adds a few more to the pot. Every bang on the hot stock exchange nets thousands of bucks.
That there is a super-rich class is hardly new. But Bill Gates and Richard Branson had real products to sell. Many of the super-rich these days don't. They just know how to move digits around on a computer screen.
It can be hard for ordinary folks to accept. Cabby John Ang, 34, works from 10am to 3am, making about $160 per day. He works every day. 'Got to, lah,' he said.
GETTING GREEN EYED
He sees more luxury cars on the roads these days. Touch of envy?
Yes, he admits.
'They should pay more taxes,' he said.
Will such sentiment be the Achilles' heel of the new economy?
The paradox is this: Singaporeans are pragmatically capitalist. But we're also suckers for good, old hard work.
Hard work versus capitalist smarts - which way will be the right way? '(London) has distilled globalisation,' wrote Roger Cohen in the IHT. 'The international elite is pricing British accountants, engineers and, yes, journalists out of the multimillion-dollar housing market.
'More than half of homes over US$6million go to foreign residents with wealth matched only by their tax breaks.'
Substitute London for Singapore. Will we see the same situation, with sky-rocketing property prices fueled by foreign buyers?
Will money be the root of all envy?
'In a capitalist society, you are rewarded according to how much you contribute towards the generation of wealth,' said CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun.
Last week, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said that Singapore is in a 'golden period', one that might stretch over 'many years'.
But how to seize the moment?
Mr James Sim, honorary secretary of the Financial Planning Association of Singapore said:'If your objective is work-centred, start a business. If your objective is wealth, then make use of the investment opportunities wisely.'
The irony, of course, is that by trying to be richer, you're only making the fund managers filthy rich too.
Money has always made the world go round.
But now, it's starting to look more and more like a vicious circle.
Yes, it can be confusing.
But not if we continue to value other things more than money - like relationships, values and pride in good, honest work.