Night Owl Chatterboxes - Part LIII
-
Also re wages and inflation
I think it's only the unskilled jobs that are not rising accordingly. As usual the lower rungs of society gets left out which is atypical of most countries and the government have to step in to help them.
I dunno if Bear and AV got a raise but we did get a raise according to inflation.
-
Originally posted by Rhonda:
It is not FT's that should be targetted, but rather, labour policies. The Unions are weak in Singapore, they do not offer any protection whatsoever to workers. Even without the FT's presence, if a corporation is ruthless enough, they will still fire the older, more expensive workers, and replace them with freshly-graduated, keen as puppy dogs Singaporean youths. The absence of FT's alone will not guarantee that the unfair practice will not permeate. The solution to that problem, is to enforce labour laws that make such practices illegal and enforce a penalty on such practices, which, as we can already guess, will be futile thinking, it being Singapore.
As for public transport and over-crowding, seriously, WHICH major developed city doesn't face the same problems? Rising costs of housing, lousy public transport, hard-to-find parking lots, expensive parking, overcrowding... ALL are typical problems encountered by all major cities in the world. We aren't doing any worse. We win some, we lose some.
oh, but I never mentioned anything about unions, cos it's a taken that the unions here are but for show, and that the real labour policies are set by the goverment ... protectionism goes against everything in pure macro econs, but it is essential to political economy ... it's not just a simple case of setting up fair labour policies, because if we do not place incentives and labour laws in place to protect the rights of the local worker in our home turf, then we'd cease to have a viable reason to be singaporeans ... we are already being asked to give more than non-citizens, and we have to make do with less too ? ....
it may sound whinny ... but think about it .... why earn less and give more as Singaporeans, while I can earn more and give less as foreign talents overseas ? .... my country can't even tell or show me that I matter, while asking me to fight and die to defend this country ? ...
ironic isn't it ? ...
-
Originally posted by Fatum:
but you see, that's the whole point ! ... they do HAVE a huge cost advantage over us right now ... but we are still doing better than they are in many key areas ... our wage structures are already much higher than our immediate neighbours .. but we were still be able to out-compete them ... we were able to do it before ... what has changed ? ... did the Singaporean worker become "lazy" overnight ?: ...
and it is an economic truism that sooner or later, everyone would be facing the same wage structure, where do we go then ? ... now it's china, perhaps it'll be india next, Africa perhaps ... where else then ? ... where's the next lowest cost center ? ...
Competitiveness is not measured based on strictly monetary terms. I think we win hands-down in terms of efficiency and productivity, in being the least corrupt amongst all our neighbours, in offering secure investment opportunities, in our low corporate tax rates, etc. In international surveys done annually, we always come up tops, not always due to cost.
Not all FT's bring down the wage costs. That's a fallacy. I worked in a few American firms before donning on my Nursing cap and there were lots of American expatriates in most of them, and in one of them, on top of the Americans, there were Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians, Hong Kongers, Australians, Canadians, etc etc. I can safely declare that it will be hard-pressed to replace them with Singaporeans because :
1) Singaporeans will not have the specialised expertise in the areas the company was dealing with, eg. Mining, Excavating roads in mountainous regions, etc.
2) Singaporeans may not necessarily know the local situations of other countries well enough, and that's why we had to bring in FT's who are knowledgeable about the field conditions back in their homeland.
3) These FT's ended up training the young Singaporean Engineers who were keen to pick up specialised knowledge. Thus, they helped to improve the level of professionalism and expertise of Singaporeans.
4) Working with these FT's provided me, and countless others, with invaluable experience, exposure, and insight, and to them, I shamelessly say that I am much indebted.
I think your view of FT's is extremely narrow. FT's don't just refer to your blue-collar workers. My Literature tutors in Secondary School and in JC were also FT's, and I think they did a fantastic job! I don't think abolishing the presence of FT's will help raise salary levels.
-
oh well .... let's leave politics out of here shall we ? ...
this is my only refuge from SC ...
in the other news, i'm piaking an average of 8 mozzies a night ... I dunno how they get in inspite of the aircon ...
or maybe they were already hiding in the room before ....
but someone in the neighbourhood must have been breeding mozzies ... a letter came saying two chaps contracted dengue in our neighbourhood a little while ago ...
-
Originally posted by Fatum:
oh well .... let's leave politics out of here shall we ? ...
this is my only refuge from SC ...
in the other news, i'm piaking an average of 8 mozzies a night ... I dunno how they get in inspite of the aircon ...
or maybe they were already hiding in the room before ....
but someone in the neighbourhood must have been breeding mozzies ... a letter came saying two chaps contracted dengue in our neighbourhood a little while ago ...
I said it the first time you came back and I say it again
They just love your blood
It's sweet :P
-
Originally posted by Rhonda:
Competitiveness is not measured based on strictly monetary terms. I think we win hands-down in terms of efficiency and productivity, in being the least corrupt amongst all our neighbours, in offering secure investment opportunities, in our low corporate tax rates, etc. In international surveys done annually, we always come up tops, not always due to cost.
Not all FT's bring down the wage costs. That's a fallacy. I worked in a few American firms before donning on my Nursing cap and there were lots of American expatriates in most of them, and in one of them, on top of the Americans, there were Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians, Hong Kongers, Australians, Canadians, etc etc. I can safely declare that it will be hard-pressed to replace them with Singaporeans because :
1) Singaporeans will not have the specialised expertise in the areas the company was dealing with, eg. Mining, Excavating roads in mountainous regions, etc.
2) Singaporeans may not necessarily know the local situations of other countries well enough, and that's why we had to bring in FT's who are knowledgeable about the field conditions back in their homeland.
3) These FT's ended up training the young Singaporean Engineers who were keen to pick up specialised knowledge. Thus, they helped to improve the level of professionalism and expertise of Singaporeans.
4) Working with these FT's provided me, and countless others, with invaluable experience, exposure, and insight, and to them, I shamelessly say that I am much indebted.
I think your view of FT's is extremely narrow. FT's don't just refer to your blue-collar workers. My Literature tutors in Secondary School and in JC were also FT's, and I think they did a fantastic job! I don't think abolishing the presence of FT's will help raise salary levels.
Competitiveness is not measured based on strictly monetary terms. I think we win hands-down in terms of efficiency and productivity, in being the least corrupt amongst all our neighbours, in offering secure investment opportunities, in our low corporate tax rates, etc. In international surveys done annually, we always come up tops, not always due to cost.
exactly ! ... but that is being used as an excuse to keep wages low now, especially at the lower end of the spectrum ....
it's getting worse, not better ... I'll give you an example ... an average unigrad in computer science a few years ago, local or overseas, could have gotten 2.5k and better as a starting wage ... people are now accepting 2.3 and below ... cos I knew an indonesian chap, (actually a classmate of mine) who accepted a job here in singapore for 2k a month .... I smacked him on the head and told him he's spoiling the market here ... but he shrugged and said that's what they offered him, so he took it .... my father's ITE graduates are barely nudging past the 1k mark now, when they were taking 1.5 and above a month ... people are dropping down the rungs on the wage scale ...
i don't deny that foreign talents do Singapore a lot of good, indeed to economies everywhere, but when there is a whole sale hollowing out of the local work force, .... something is seriously wrong ....
-
Originally posted by Fatum:
oh, but I never mentioned anything about unions, cos it's a taken that the unions here are but for show, and that the real labour policies are set by the goverment ... protectionism goes against everything in pure macro econs, but it is essential to political economy ... it's not just a simple case of setting up fair labour policies, because if we do not place incentives and labour laws in place to protect the rights of the local worker in our home turf, then we'd cease to have a viable reason to be singaporeans ... we are already being asked to give more than non-citizens, and we have to make do with less too ? ....
it may sound whinny ... but think about it .... why earn less and give more as Singaporeans, while I can earn more and give less as foreign talents overseas ? .... my country can't even tell or show me that I matter, while asking me to fight and die to defend this country ? ...
ironic isn't it ? ...
Instead of questioning stuff like that, (because you will never win nor will you see your ideals come to fruition, ever) do what I did... vote with my feet!
I'm one of the increasing no.s of nurses who are slowly but surely finding their way out here, and someday, our numbers will be substantial enough for the govt to FINALLY realise that something HAS to be done to improve the working conditions for nurses in Singapore. Basically, I realised almost a decade ago, that there are some policies back home that I detest, but there's nothing I can do to change the situation, so therefore, I will change what I can to open up opportunities for myself. I'm an FT here, and because of the good labour laws here, I do not deprive anyone of their job, nor does my presence cause wages to spiral downwards. That's something the Singapore govt can emulate. In contrast, my presence makes it easier for all nurses to enjoy a flexible roster that's largely self-planned, and to take sickies when needed, as well as to take Annual Leave without the ridiculous need to submit an entire year's annual leave request by Oct of the preceding year just to plan for manpower needs.
Don't just stay in the rut of thinking that FT's do more harm than good. FT's do bring advantages, and not just to the country's economy.
-
Originally posted by Fatum:
Competitiveness is not measured based on strictly monetary terms. I think we win hands-down in terms of efficiency and productivity, in being the least corrupt amongst all our neighbours, in offering secure investment opportunities, in our low corporate tax rates, etc. In international surveys done annually, we always come up tops, not always due to cost.
exactly ! ... but that is being used as an excuse to keep wages low now, especially at the lower end of the spectrum ....
it's getting worse, not better ... I'll give you an example ... an average unigrad in computer science a few years ago, local or overseas, could have gotten 2.5k and better as a starting wage ... people are now accepting 2.3 and below ... cos I knew an indonesian chap, (actually a classmate of mine) who accepted a job here in singapore for 2k a month .... I smacked him on the head and told him he's spoiling the market here ... but he shrugged and said that's what they offered him, so he took it .... my father's ITE graduates are barely nudging past the 1k mark now, when they were taking 1.5 and above a month ... people are dropping down the rungs on the wage scale ...
i don't deny that foreign talents do Singapore a lot of good, indeed to economies everywhere, but when there is a whole sale hollowing out of the local work force, .... something is seriously wrong ....
Yes... something IS very wrong. And what's wrong is the absence of labour laws that eradicate such unjust practices, NOT the presence of FT's.
-
there's still a big black fat mozzie buzzing around ... bit me twice already ...
I'm going to have to kill it first before I sleep ... if not I'll wake up in the middle of the night with my feet and head looking like cottage cheese ...
-
I went on a ride to Batu Bahat Malaysia for durians with my biker ah pek and friends.
The flies there are so horrible, they make a sticky paper all black in colour when they landed on it.
And there was more. If I can upload the handphone pics. you folks are going to faint.
I started lamenting that we should have a tennis racket electric thingy to kill the flies....and an hour later, another young girl wished for it....then another ah pek wished for it.
it will be funny to see everyone swatting and running after the flies....and we dont have that with us!
-
Originally posted by Fatum:
there's still a big black fat mozzie buzzing around ... bit me twice already ...
I'm going to have to kill it first before I sleep ... if not I'll wake up in the middle of the night with my feet and head looking like cottage cheese ...
*imagines fatum looking like cottage cheese*
HAHAAHHAHAHHAHA
/goes to bed laughing..
HEHE
-
It's 3:22am here... bedtime!
Buh bye, folks! Nite nite! -
i want one of those things now ... but to swat mosquitos ! ...
-
Open sesame !
-
*me mysteriously appears in a puff of smoke*
I had dinner at Ramen Ten at Tampines just now.
The sashimi wasn't fresh...... and the slices of salmon were so small!
And the sushi was also pretty stale..... the crabsticks weren't that fresh, and the glutinous rice crumbled apart when I picked the sushi up with chopsticks.
What the heck is wrong with them.... I've been to their outlet at Far East, and I had much better sushi and sashimi there!
-
its only 8.40pm!!! time is passing so slowly.
14 more days to go~!
-
Less than 24 hours to go!
-
no no....15 more mins and i will be on my way home
-
evening
-
ah yes, this is the life.
sitting at an open area, surfing wireless and having a heineken with my colleagues.
-
Fudge the food sounds horrible!!
In other news Bacon Orders so far:
Ferret - 1 carton
Keii - 1 carton
Me - 1 carton
AV - To Be Determined -_-"
-
very tired liao
going to sleep soon
-
bacon? what bacon? 1 carton is how much 0.o
-
Originally posted by hisoka:
bacon? what bacon? 1 carton is how much 0.o
Canadian Frozen Bacon1 carton = 5kg
If I didn't get the price wrong it's $26.50 per carton +/- The most 27 bucks a carton :P
Pictures in Jive Pad
-
5kg in 1 carton
Photos of the bacon. It's packed in a layer pack
