No alternative to raising productivity, says Tharman
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SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said there is no alternative to raising productivity as the government embarks on a major restructuring of the economy.
He said the government will spare no effort to help businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to make this transition to higher productivity, which will in turn lead to higher wages for workers.
Mr Tharman was speaking at the Indian New Year celebrations in Serangoon.
On the Indian Community, he said one of its achievements is that it has become more cohesive over the years.
Mr Tharman said: "It's a community that's coming closer together. We've got to keep up the spirit and also make an effort as we have new immigrants coming into our society.
"Make a special effort to integrate them, and the new immigrants themselves also must make a special effort to understand our society, understand the fact that it is multicultural with major ethnic groups that are from very different parts of Asia."
Several Indian communities gathered in Little India to showcase their own art forms and customs. These included exhibitions on Indian culture, tradition and heritage.
Mr Tharman added that more professional and business elite have become involved in the community, and that philanthropy efforts are on the rise in this group.
The week-long Indian New Year celebrations aim to forge a strong bond among various ethnic Indian communities as well as other racial communities within Singapore.
-CNA/ac -
actually, i wonder about this "raising productivity" thing in terms of the economy..
so... theoretically, one person produces enough for one person's consumption.. all and good...
increase in productivity means that one person now produces enough for maybe two person's consumption...
which allows for the corporations to retrench or fire one of the workers since the demand for products remain the same... unless each person is forced to consume more...
so begins the insane cycle of producing more and consuming more in order to increase the "economy"
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I guess Mr T never talk to the local indians whether they are integrating well with the localised indians.
As for productivity, he is the third guy telling the local to raise productivity.
Please show us your productivity in solving the basic issues faced by the local.
First on the agenda is the by election in Hougang.
If they can not even do that, they are in no position to tell the local what to do.
Please look in the mirror first.
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to get the carrot u have to run faster.....while almost reaching, the carrot was put further...further...and so u stop and grumble...fine...i put in foreign rabbits to run for the carrot...dun say i never warn u.... its such a simple and straight line no nonsense productivity equation..
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Is there anything new to what he has said? That has always been the modus operandi of this government. Productivity -work! work! work! work! And they tell you work is good for you even at 75 driving a taxi is good for you. But realistically, does ANY GOVERNMENT in the world tell its citizens "oh it ok we can afford lower productivity!" I doubt any does that. The problem with Singapore is a "problem of extremes". we add on all the time! The momentum and rate at which we have to keep going goes up all the time! Why? How many people have we brought in here to share the small pie? To grow the GDP indefinitely - where is there any alternative or slow down? How else can a little red dot be a super global first? How else can we be giving away scholarships? How else can we subsidize our PRs? How else can we host FI? Bet you they'll soon sell you the idea: "working to 80 years old is normal!" . Or "scrap the whole idea of retirement, just work till you drop dead- that's what a meaningful life is about.." .
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Originally posted by Medicated Oil:
I guess Mr T never talk to the local indians whether they are integrating well with the localised indians.
As for productivity, he is the third guy telling the local to raise productivity.
Please show us your productivity in solving the basic issues faced by the local.
First on the agenda is the by election in Hougang.
If they can not even do that, they are in no position to tell the local what to do.
Please look in the mirror first.
If they could solve the problem of everyone having to be like mice on a treadmill in this productivity drive cycles and their wonderful restructures after restructures almost annually on a continuous basis- would they be repeating their own echoes? That's their modus operandi in governance-the treadmill can only be turn on faster and higher ....until you drop dead...then they get new batches of mice...simple! NO ALERNATIVE -get it? -
How could Prof Lim be so wrong? Even if he is, hIs errors are out of social and priority concern over increasing income gap aside to considerations of talent losses. And it takes a very bold intellectual and a great social innovator to give a hearty insight for his grand juniors whom he had taught and trained. Bravo! Prof Lim!
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
How could Prof Lim be so wrong?
Even if he is, hIs errors are out of social and priority concern over increasing income gap aside to considerations of talent losses. And it takes a very bold intellectual and a great social innovator to give a hearty insight for his grand juniors whom he had taught and trained.
Bravo! Prof Lim!
Professor whatever is only trying to rectify what he has not done over the years, whilst sitting in the CWN! If he had recommended the right thing earlier over the years -we don't have to be so drastic suddenly which indeed can have some dire consequences. O am also surprise why all of a sudden this Professor speaks up? Why nobody talks about global benchmarked salaries these days? -
different stages of economic development requires different therapy... this is the second wage revolution he is proposing....not the first time...this much he could do....
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
different stages of economic development requires different therapy…
this is the second wage revolution he is proposing….not the first time…this much he could do….
At different stages , we were already doing a lot of wrong things anyway! All the lousy practices in accounting we followed the West! silly spending wastages and write offs! And the presumption was that the country was a jackpot machine and growth is eternal! Property speculative fervour was allowed. For donkey years over a decade at least year after year, the top band of salaries in the land were "meticulously benchmarked" higher and higher, ( justification to retain talents!) whilst at the lowest end -no minimum wage and oh yes! "we must not encourage a "crutch mentality" by helping the very poor with only a 30 dollar increase! How to forget such meaness? Too many wrongs cannot be corrected with a one swipe drastic right unfortunately-even if it is right! -
No alternative to raising productivity, says Tharman
There are always alternatives. PAP cannot find alternatives then Singaporeans should get rid of PAP and let others do the job.
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Animal farm -2
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Originally posted by Dalforce 1941:
There are always alternatives. PAP cannot find alternatives then Singaporeans should get rid of PAP and let others do the job.
There are always alternatives. Yes.
Fair wage, equitable terms, welfare, just to name a few. Productivity should not be the only thing to consider while restructuring.
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Originally posted by Bio-Hawk:
Animal farm -2
Have you read and understood the book Animal Farm by George Orwell?
What happened at the end?
Don't just throw a name, without understanding, you simpleton.
Its no wonder you cannot cut it in Singapore, and have to leave.
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The productivity issue and the issue of uneven distribution of wealth despite growing GDP are really two seperate issues! The assumption is that if productivity is increased- everyone's life will be definitely better off- not necessarily so. If policies are made so that the rich continually becomes richer- the poor can never even catch up a quarter of the way! For example if I have 20 slaves and make them work twice as hard giving them extra payment of one extra bowl of porridge a day so that I can buy three more bungalows a year-how does that narrow the gap between the rich and the poor?
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What type of productivity do they want from the cleaners and road sweepers?
Ask them to take up distance learning and study for a part time law degree?
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Originally posted by charlize:
What type of productivity do they want from the cleaners and road sweepers?
Ask them to take up distance learning and study for a part time law degree?
get paid less while sweeping and cleaning even more..
and sadly, i'm not kidding
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Originally posted by the Bear:
get paid less while sweeping and cleaning even more..
and sadly, i'm not kidding
This is called cheaper better faster.
The brainchild of the people at the top.
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A lot of them already queueing up to rebuke Prof Lee's proposal.
LSS, LSL, LSY, T, Teo, LTY.
I guess the empty vessel make the most noise.
What have they produce ?
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Originally posted by Medicated Oil:
A lot of them already queueing up to rebuke Prof Lee's proposal.
LSS, LSL, LSY, T, Teo, LTY.
I guess the empty vessel make the most noise.
What have they produce ?
lots of noise
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Other forums commented that when they raised their own salaries, not one of them spoke against the raise or talked about productivity.
Go figure.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
actually, i wonder about this "raising productivity" thing in terms of the economy..
so... theoretically, one person produces enough for one person's consumption.. all and good...
increase in productivity means that one person now produces enough for maybe two person's consumption...
which allows for the corporations to retrench or fire one of the workers since the demand for products remain the same... unless each person is forced to consume more...
so begins the insane cycle of producing more and consuming more in order to increase the "economy"
What Tharman expounds is the classical economic view.
Some of the New Keynesians believe that team-synergy is important.
Laziness spreads as we know it, and paying workers for their individual productivity neglects the fact that team synergy is very important as well.
So they believe that premium is / can be imposed on wages to encourage workers to stay longer, gain experience, and work better with the team.
Of course the theory says also that you get involuntary unemployment, which is of course a blemish from cheng hu's POV.
Realistically, what Tharman says is right. Only that, you can disagree on the "no alternative" part. You can argue that we can just shrivel and die and beg M'sia to take us back in as an alternative.
I kid you not.
So much for an FDI-led strategy.
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Issue here is also about society in general.
Cannot have too wide an income gap.
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Sustainability Theory of Wages – by Fcukpap As productivity and wages are involuntarily affected by multiple factors from investments, bargaining and purchasing power, government spending to human capital, it is dependent on the stages of economic development as well as global market competitiveness and changes; which short term solutions of minimal wage incentives and compensation are not capable to sustain the accelerating growth of market and future developments.
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Originally posted by SBS2601D:
What Tharman expounds is the classical economic view.
Some of the New Keynesians believe that team-synergy is important.
Laziness spreads as we know it, and paying workers for their individual productivity neglects the fact that team synergy is very important as well.
So they believe that premium is / can be imposed on wages to encourage workers to stay longer, gain experience, and work better with the team.
Of course the theory says also that you get involuntary unemployment, which is of course a blemish from cheng hu's POV.
Realistically, what Tharman says is right. Only that, you can disagree on the "no alternative" part. You can argue that we can just shrivel and die and beg M'sia to take us back in as an alternative.
I kid you not.
So much for an FDI-led strategy.
we can follow this. and still die eventually.. because it is a death spiral anyway...
we really need to find an alternative instead of just taking this all up the ass