SG must end over-reliance on foreign workers sooner or later
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Singapore’s tendency to rely on the continual acceptance of cheap foreign labour has made it a “one-trick pony”, said Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) director Corinna Lim.
Speaking as a panellist at a forum on the country’s population issues on Saturday afternoon, Lim noted that its excessive dependence on foreign workers over the years is a short-term one that needs to end sooner or later, and that there are other ways to promote economic growth that we somehow stopped working on.
“The problem with Singapore is that suddenly, we became a one-trick pony,” she said, addressing about 50 members of the public in attendance. “Our one trick was bring in more cheap foreign labour; we will increase GDP every year. And that is true, but it’s not the only trick in the book — (yet) it became so convenient for us that we used it all the time.”
Lim added that Singapore’s reliance on foreign workers extends beyond short-term economic goals to caring for the sick, the aged and the young.
“This one trick is very short-term. How many more people can we have?” she asked. “I’m sure we can take 6 million (people), we might even be able to take 6.5 million. But how many more beyond there? There must be an end to this... we can’t keep adding more and more people.”
In another point on Singapore’s population, the government’s repeated statements relating fertility rates to the need for foreign workers to support economic growth over the years are “illogical”, said Lim.
Quoting the then-Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng in 2010, who said Singapore’s low fertility rates mean that it “must keep bringing in foreign workers to support economic growth as the population ages”, Lim said, “If you think about it, (it’s) completely illogical.”
“Having one extra foreign worker today is not going to make any difference at all to the number of people that we have 20 years from now, which is what this fertility issue is about,” she continued. “This (the mass admission of foreign workers) has nothing to do with fertility; this has everything to do with the short-term economic needs that exist today — it’s not to do with fertility, so stop trying to confuse us with this.”Profit versus cost approach ‘forces us to ground zero’
Adding to the discussion was fellow panellist Vincent Wijeysingha, treasurer of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, who said Singapore’s economic climate of seeking the highest profit from the lowest cost will eventually “force us to ground zero”.
He said going along the line of our “one trick” of continually bringing in more and more foreign workers would still not enable us to compete with countries that have much larger populations, such as Indonesia, South Africa and Papua New Guinea.
“(The three countries have) huge populations where you pay far lower than you would pay in Singapore,” he said. “So the idea that we can somehow compete — cheaper and cheaper and cheaper labour — eventually you bottom out, you flat-line.”
Wijeysingha added that Singapore could go in the way of Liverpool and Detroit in the 1970s and 80s, where in the case of Liverpool, its docks and traditional manufacturing industries entered a sharp decline when containerisation replaced its labour strategy, and for Detroit, its automobile industry took a hit when foreign vehicles entered the fray.
While these cities and their parent countries — the UK and the U.S. — sought refuge in their primary industries, Wijeysingha said Singapore “cannot take shelter in a primary industry to stabilise us”.
“An economy that seems fixated on the low-wage model is heading for crisis,” he added. “We don’t have to be economists to say this, (and) the inability of the government to comprehend this is not something we, the people, should have to put up with any longer.”
Data shows impact on low-wage workers: LeongLim and Wijeysingha were among a panel that also included The Online Citizen chief editor Kumaran Pillai and statistician Leong Sze Hian, who tackled issues relating to the question of whether or not Singapore can support and sustain a 6 million-sized population.
Speaking on the issue of the influx of S-pass and work permit holders who depress the wages of Singaporean workers, Leong pointed out that the impact of this phenomenon has been telling through available statistics.
Even though unemployment rates on the whole may stand officially below 2 per cent, Leong noted that the rates for cleaners, labourers and related services are higher, at more than 5 per cent.
Aggravating the situation is the fact that the net pay for these workers is falling over the years instead of rising with inflation, with Leong adding that in the past decade, real wages for this category of workers fell by more than 30 per cent when adjusted for inflation.
He also observed that there appears to be discrimination by age in the workplace, where at the median level for male workers in Singapore, real wages start to fall by age 38. By the time he reaches 55, a man at the median income level earns the same as what he did when he was 33, said Leong.
“We can sustain a 6 or even 6.5 million population,” said Leong. “The more important question I would ask, though, is what kinds of people are we bringing in?”-- Yahoo!
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fark her
is she coming to look after my mum while i go to work? -
no , not possible to do without foreign workers. some families need foreign maids tolook after kids and do housework.
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maids , yes we nid them constuction workers , we nid them how bout drivers of light or heavy veh and private company buses ? we can work but companies dun wanna gv higher pay and facing locals who might just quit on the job . not to mention some got reservist , go rt all tat . everytime news report employment rates all on those office type , nv report labour type leh . our garment nid companies and enterprises here , they will entertain them and help them not us . we got no job , garment tell us go sweep floor wan not . wat is our land coming to !
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many years ago i dont see we need maids. last time still have local aunties to do those work. we must ask - why? last time not hav so many such problems how?
take my beighbours downstirs. the old parents nanny and grandpa - well and walking, everyday can gossip over the phone at kopi tiam. they not well to do family, son not very high educated wife also still hire maid.
i ask why? really that old vcannot move a limb? why not spend those effort and gossip silva don something constructuive. now son can walk already maid still around. for fiak?!
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North East Community Development Council has an "Nanny@ North East Programme" to get nanny to look after children : http://www.northeastcdc.org.sg , usually most working couples who have no time to do housework are the one looking for a maid.From the feedback of my group of friends, when they reached "young adult", their dad and mum will ask them to either help out in the housework or bear the maid cost together if they need to hire a maid when they entered workforce.
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come one, rich ones okay. those earning only 1,000 odd less than 2k per month even couple like that hire maid add cost for what? they so lazy until willing to pay and cover one eye let other people like maid do a half fuck job also happy.
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We need to be cheaper better and faster.
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that guy who threatened to bomb MBS
is his school a training sch for future construction workers?
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well....u can start with enrolling sg gals on mandatory national (non-military) social service for 2 years like men...and deployed to all old folks home, nursery, hospitals and where social services are needed....
u cut foreign reliance and levies, help inculcate what better women should be, taking care of needy, eliminate spoiled attitudes, armed with skill sets to better take care of families than spending whole life shopping till dead...minimizing divorce rates....and other countless benefits to the society...
do we still need foreign workers/ nurses to slap our aged parents in hospitals?
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Originally posted by charlize:
We need to be cheaper better and faster.
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Originally posted by laurence82:
that guy who threatened to bomb MBS
is his school a training sch for future construction workers?
i dont think so. in his FB page threat never mention how to identify the building's critical and weakest structure to bomb it down.mayb he can pass as the hrd laborer, but definitle cannot make it as building demolition engineer
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
well....u can start with enrolling sg gals on mandatory national (non-military) social service for 2 years like men...and deployed to all old folks home, nursery, hospitals and where social services are needed....
u cut foreign reliance and levies, help inculcate what better women should be, taking care of needy, eliminate spoiled attitudes, armed with skill sets to better take care of families than spending whole life shopping till dead...minimizing divorce rates....and other countless benefits to the society...
do we still need foreign workers/ nurses to slap our aged parents in hospitals?
like that no one will be spending on luxury items. no foreign luxury brands come here invest open shop business, no rental to collect for governemnt..i agree your suggestion can change our women's attitude. but look at our NS boys? a lot also the mind is not there when serving. and they are also spoilted brat also.
our education is not enuff yet. we focused too much on grading and cert.
and we have NSF bengs that only dare to engage the same age ah beng 'gangster's when they outnumber them 10:1
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men should be construction workers and women work as maids for their NS obligations.
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Originally posted by GHoST_18:
men should be construction workers and women work as maids for their NS obligations.
we should expand our land so there will not be the need to demolish and rebuild so often. ah mas and aunties can do stuff maids do. -
Life is surreal.
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cannot leh - bolang - HDB flats cannot build.
build so many? bluff who, people dont need so many flats lar - see so many of them vacant.
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
cannot leh - bolang - HDB flats cannot build.
build so many? bluff who, people dont need so many flats lar - see so many of them vacant.
they only make sure they are happy. The rest is not important
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build for the sake of building
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miught as well use the money to re-claim land first. more land, more buildings stays, prices go down a bit, people do bsuiness here cheaper. more will cum.
you know this is not the solution. to get more cheap useless labor and opush wages down, more sgreans jobless or gettig fucked up jobs, you keep increasing the land prices until when? can increase sgreans but do that on businesses they will go elsewhere move. think again., unless you just want to milk profits from sg one geeneration after that you go elsewhere retire sgreans people still have to stay here live.
people - vote for the correct gahmen. if not vote for an alternate gahmen. using this one white one is ostrich poke head into soil, boiling the froog only. time will kill us all
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we do not need AWARE to even point out the issue of overpopulation.
..in fact, they should voice out for their husbands who is the true suffrage behind their well supported and overemphasized women charter ...
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
many years ago i dont see we need maids. last time still have local aunties to do those work. we must ask - why? last time not hav so many such problems how?
take my beighbours downstirs. the old parents nanny and grandpa - well and walking, everyday can gossip over the phone at kopi tiam. they not well to do family, son not very high educated wife also still hire maid.
i ask why? really that old vcannot move a limb? why not spend those effort and gossip silva don something constructuive. now son can walk already maid still around. for fiak?!
In the past it is quite different compare to nowadays. In the past, most family don't have maid, however most of the wife don't work and were full time housewives, thus the demand for such job is not high and local can fill up. However nowadays, unless the husband are super rich, most family need the double income. There are still housework that need someone that are younger to do and nowadays it is common for work that end up long working hours, required travel etc, which mean both husband and wife might not be able to help much if just depend on their parents (Same case in Hong Kong if you actually see it) -
Originally posted by Fcukpap:
we do not need AWARE to even point out the issue of overpopulation.
..in fact, they should voice out for their husbands who is the true suffrage behind their well supported and overemphasized women charter ...
You can write in to pm to get rid of women charter.