Welfare,large middle class necessary for creative society?
-
Currently, Singapore is going in the opposite direction of no welfare,shrinking middle class, with rising prices and widening income gap.
Safety nets are virtually non-existent.
But are safety nets,large middle class necessary for an innovative and creative society? These two factors, i think, increases the tolerance for failures. Or is just using money to attract talents like Chelsea football club sufficient?
I ask this question because i read about the life journey of a very talented composer Yuki Kajiura She was working as an office administrator and pursuing her dream as a singer. Her early years as a singer was a series of failures and she supported herself as an office admin. Her break came ironically not as a singer, but as a composer when she was asked write a theme song for a Japanese drama. The song did well and she began her new journey as a music composer. She never look back since and continued to compose many hits for Anime soundtracks. The journey for a talent sometimes is just not straight forward success. Failure and experimentation are necessary.
But if she was born in Singapore, would she have taken such a big gamble in pursuing music? Similarly, would another inventor, programmer, or sportsman taken similar risks to pursue what they believe in? Or if we want to rephrase in Singapore context, would the parents allow their children to take such risks?
Singapore is not a country like Australia or Japan where there is a larger middle class that even the waiters decently paid. You can often hear parents saying that in Singapore, if you dont have the "paper" you are nothing.The risks of failure are just much higher when there are no safety nets. -
Don't worry, your future is with me... mmm... you gotta stand on your own legs... oh! wow... you have succeeded... remember, be grateful... it's my conditioning for you...
-
I wasnt trying to say i was successful and commenting on what is needed for success. My achievements are pretty average.Originally posted by Doubletalk:Don't worry, your future is with me... mmm... you gotta stand on your own legs... oh! wow... you have succeeded... remember, be grateful... it's my conditioning for you...
The point i was trying to put across was if we want innovation and creativity, we need a system to tolerate failures.
I read about another story that fits the failure then success story.
Bram Cohen the creator for Bit torrent software first applied his idea to security and encryption by splitting files and and recombining data later at the end point. His idea as a commercial product couldnt take off but later he thought of applying the same idea on file downloads and Voila! We have the Bit torrent.
My point was is, if there was little social support and poor job security as a IT programmer, would he have taken a year off work just to complete Bit Torrent?
I wont say Singapore system is bad, but these welfare states that we have been routinely criticizing have a better track record of producing research and innovation. -
No income...
No health...
No savings...
add one more,
No face.
http://www.theopinion.in/?p=20
"THE POOR HERE ARE ACTUALLY REALLY SUPPORTING THE RICH!!" pinkyclown
How true? -
So sad.
The middle class are slowly falling into an abyss.
-
Singapore is small. You make a mistake in this company, the other company quickly finds out and you will find difficulty to get a decent job. No one dares to rock the boat.