Cheap labour and globalisation of a metropolis
The Seagames is upon a metropolis, Singapore government thrives on their prized imported talents to win in ping pong. Full time professional paddlers that does nothing all day but play ping pong. And they are are paid millions out of tax payers' money for the government's ambition. On the other hand, local sportsmen are not so pampered, they hold full-time jobs, or are students multi-tasking exams and training. Which makes me wonder how does the government define talent? The synchronised swimming win was a milestone for Singapore indeed, the girls are all students, and we understand the grueling MOE curriculum of textbooks crunching and enormous amount of time dedicated to an olympic sport.
Food for thought, now back to the article's title of Cheap labour and globalisation of a metropolis. The same parallel can be drawn on the government's stance on globalisation, with global trade talks among economic powers and emerging market economies, Singapore cannot be recluse in her protectionist policies of local business and job market. Let's rewind back to the late 80s on how things worked in Singapore market and review the changes now. Singapore does not have much to offer except a transit shipping port, oil refineries, oil rig builds and a transit airport. These are her global supply chain contributions and strong assets. But when people come to Singapore, the locals need to muster up and spruce up the place for business, the government fill in the void by setting up Government Linked Companies (GLCs) and a phlethoral initiatives to springboard local businesses to create a vibrant city state. The educated workforce, the innovative businesses, maintaining the status quo of the 3 Ace cards of Singapore's global existence.
Fast forward to present 2015, SG50, how have these initiatives turn out? I hate mincing on details and just evaluate the product and the results it achieves, can't evaluate what it's made of and how it's made? Who can? Those evaluations only put the reader off-track and missed the big picture. Now Singapore is a city state of 3m foreign immigrants, most expensive city in the world, most unhappy people, no welfare state, highest paid cabinet ministers. And sliding world rankings on her shipping ports, airports, lesser digs around the world means less demand for oil rigs to be build.
Who are the winners and losers? Remember the Seagames synchronised win? The real gems are those who strives to succeed with pure will and passion. The losers are the ones who feed on handouts and complacency. For 50 glorious years of wealth creation, Singapore has not created any innovative business that moves and shake the world, not in the Arts, Science or Business, none that is so big that it's worth paying her minsiters global CEO pay packages, wonder where that theory comes from? Here's the end result, local business's cry for keeping costs down, entice the government to influx cheap foreign labour for local business to profit. Too easy a thing is not a good thing, these cheap source of labour leads to complacency and lack innovative drive, cause its highly profitable by driving down the highest costs of businesses, labour. What for innovate when you are making good money with your highest costs of business so cheap? That's no need to create another business model anymore, go cheap, earn big! Remember the China paddlars? They have nothing to do except play ping pong, what an easy job! Remember the synchronised swimmers, they have to balance school work and training, how tough!
And where did all the money earn from having cheap labour goes to? Lamborghinis, Ferraris, ultra expensive prime districts condos, overseas investments. You see how complacent this is going? Any business analytics would know something big is missing from this botox of a metropolis, where are the movers and shakers of the business world? Where is the direction this is heading, there is no plan!!! Go cheaper, sign the TPP, CECA or whatever trade agreement, source for the cheapest labour you can find!!! Oh my god, as we continually indulge in this cheap frenzy, the modern world outside is developing advance robotics in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to overtake some of the jobs humans are doing. Redundancy, automation, cutting down errors, bringing efficiency to another level.
I am no business advisor, can't tell you what product to make, but as a consumer and reviewer, i can tell you that this metropolis as an innovative city is a myth. It has lost its glam, its just a playground for the rich to park their money, its not the place to educate or learn your trade, or even to innovate. There's too many restrictions and ridiculous laws to protect their interests which is meaningless. The model now is only pray that the rich continue to park their money here and suck up to their every whim and fancy, build casinos, build more posh condos, marinas, spruce up little islands. Oh did they mention our hospitality service standards are dropping? Yes, not enough sucking skills, suck up more folks!!! You can hear where that comes from now.
Food for thought, now back to the article's title of Cheap labour and globalisation of a metropolis. The same parallel can be drawn on the government's stance on globalisation, with global trade talks among economic powers and emerging market economies, Singapore cannot be recluse in her protectionist policies of local business and job market. Let's rewind back to the late 80s on how things worked in Singapore market and review the changes now. Singapore does not have much to offer except a transit shipping port, oil refineries, oil rig builds and a transit airport. These are her global supply chain contributions and strong assets. But when people come to Singapore, the locals need to muster up and spruce up the place for business, the government fill in the void by setting up Government Linked Companies (GLCs) and a phlethoral initiatives to springboard local businesses to create a vibrant city state. The educated workforce, the innovative businesses, maintaining the status quo of the 3 Ace cards of Singapore's global existence.
Fast forward to present 2015, SG50, how have these initiatives turn out? I hate mincing on details and just evaluate the product and the results it achieves, can't evaluate what it's made of and how it's made? Who can? Those evaluations only put the reader off-track and missed the big picture. Now Singapore is a city state of 3m foreign immigrants, most expensive city in the world, most unhappy people, no welfare state, highest paid cabinet ministers. And sliding world rankings on her shipping ports, airports, lesser digs around the world means less demand for oil rigs to be build.
Who are the winners and losers? Remember the Seagames synchronised win? The real gems are those who strives to succeed with pure will and passion. The losers are the ones who feed on handouts and complacency. For 50 glorious years of wealth creation, Singapore has not created any innovative business that moves and shake the world, not in the Arts, Science or Business, none that is so big that it's worth paying her minsiters global CEO pay packages, wonder where that theory comes from? Here's the end result, local business's cry for keeping costs down, entice the government to influx cheap foreign labour for local business to profit. Too easy a thing is not a good thing, these cheap source of labour leads to complacency and lack innovative drive, cause its highly profitable by driving down the highest costs of businesses, labour. What for innovate when you are making good money with your highest costs of business so cheap? That's no need to create another business model anymore, go cheap, earn big! Remember the China paddlars? They have nothing to do except play ping pong, what an easy job! Remember the synchronised swimmers, they have to balance school work and training, how tough!
And where did all the money earn from having cheap labour goes to? Lamborghinis, Ferraris, ultra expensive prime districts condos, overseas investments. You see how complacent this is going? Any business analytics would know something big is missing from this botox of a metropolis, where are the movers and shakers of the business world? Where is the direction this is heading, there is no plan!!! Go cheaper, sign the TPP, CECA or whatever trade agreement, source for the cheapest labour you can find!!! Oh my god, as we continually indulge in this cheap frenzy, the modern world outside is developing advance robotics in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to overtake some of the jobs humans are doing. Redundancy, automation, cutting down errors, bringing efficiency to another level.
I am no business advisor, can't tell you what product to make, but as a consumer and reviewer, i can tell you that this metropolis as an innovative city is a myth. It has lost its glam, its just a playground for the rich to park their money, its not the place to educate or learn your trade, or even to innovate. There's too many restrictions and ridiculous laws to protect their interests which is meaningless. The model now is only pray that the rich continue to park their money here and suck up to their every whim and fancy, build casinos, build more posh condos, marinas, spruce up little islands. Oh did they mention our hospitality service standards are dropping? Yes, not enough sucking skills, suck up more folks!!! You can hear where that comes from now.
posted by Biker's World Editors at 9:00 AM
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