'5 years - All it takes to ruin Singapore'

Re: 5 years - All it takes to ruin Singapore
 Quote:

Originally Posted by nikleica, 31July2010, 10:24 PM I would urge those who can access Financial Times (FT) Weekend to read the Life & Arts Section front page. This article, entitled "Goodbye American dream" by Edward Luce sums up the fates of the 90% of the lives of Americans and traces the downfall of their quality of life since some 30 years ago..... The scary bit is that it reminded me of Singapore and where we are now....and how we can end up like the Americans.... Excerpts: The slow economic strangulation of millions of middle-class Americans started long ago before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the "personal recession" that ordinary Americans have been suffering for years. Dubbed "median wage stagnation" by economists, the annual incomes of the bottom 90 percent of US families have been essentially flat since 1973 -having risen by only 10 percent in real terms over the past 37 years. That means most Americans have been treading water for more than a generation. Over the same period, the incomes of the top 1 percent have tripled. In 1973, chief executives were on average paid 26 times the median income. Now the multiple is 300. This trend has been getting stronger. Most economists see the Great Stagnation as a structural problem - meaning that it is immune to the business cycle. In the last expansion, which started in Jan 2002 and ended in Dec 2007, the median US household income dropped by US$2,000 - the first-ever instance where most Americans were worse off at the end of a cycle than at the start. Worse is the fact that the long era of stagnating incomes has been accompanied by something profoundly un-American: declining income mobility." I think the fates of the bottom 90 percent of Singapore is the same as the Americans.

Hi, I've just surfed onto here n agree with your excerpts from "Goodbye American dream" by Edward Luce. Am shocked to have missed this thread of 3664 posts thus far, won't be surprised if A1 forums decided to delete this thread soon! Dun mind PM of links to interesting articles out of the 3664 here to keep updated.

Though my mini research on SG Ministerial salaries would fit well here, do PM me if U find my seal takes up too much space or risks this thread being deleted etc.

Stemming from the excerpt mentioning CEO pay rising from 26x - "Now the multiple is 300" I've decided to make a short back of envelope calculation to see how much the PAP's are foolhardy American greed might herald their downfall. The article 'Tharman aims to raise median wages of Singapore workers to $3,100 from the present $2,400' [link] is referenced for the SG Median salary figure, the calculations are listed below.




"PAP Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam aims to increase the wages of the average Singapore worker to $3,100 in ten years’ time from the present low level of $2,400."
- Calc [Annual Salary/ Citizen/ Median (2010)]= 2400 x 12= 28800 p.a..
- From [a/m 2006-08 gov salary], PM's 2008 salary= 3,760,000 p.a.
- Multiple PM's sal. is over Citizen's(median) sal.= 3.76m/28.8k= 130.56X
Not quite near the 300X that current US CEOs are paid but US is still a country containing prob. the highest paid CEOs in the world.

"In the last expansion, which started in Jan 2002 and ended in Dec 2007, the median US household income dropped by US$2,000 - the first-ever instance where most Americans were worse off at the end of a cycle than at the start. "

Do we want to get there and pay our revered PAP the 300X Median salary to tell us again that [CNA:03May2006]:'Singapore is at the top of its game because of a strong political system and quality leadership' and [TR3July2010]: “It’s a bit of a puzzle as to why despite a good education system, good schools system and one of the better rated university system in the world, we are not achieving as much with the workforce in terms of skills, expertise and therefore productivity – there is a gap”.
Well, to end, let me paraphrase borrowing the words of our Dear Minister Mentor [AFP22Jul2010]: ".. no amount of engineering salary can prevent flooding buy leadership... unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals sacrifice half you income and all of your freedom."
Best wishes and have a nice day, and till we meet again, Majulah Singapura.

References:
- [CNA:03May2006] 'Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says Singapore is at the top of its game because of a strong political system and quality leadership' [YouTube/@1m10s]
- [Reuters5Apr2007]: 'Singapore ministers set for million-dollar pay hike': "'If we don't do that ... corruption will set in and we will become like many other countries,' Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean was quoted as saying in the Straits Times last week." [link]
- [TR3July2010]: 'Tharman aims to raise median wages of Singapore workers to $3,100 from the present $2,400': “It’s a bit of a puzzle as to why despite a good education system, good schools system and one of the better rated university system in the world, we are not achieving as much with the workforce in terms of skills, expertise and therefore productivity – there is a gap,”: [link]
- [AFP22Jul2010]: 'Flood response not sufficient: Lee Kuan Yew': "Whatever we do when we get extraordinary rains like we had recently, no amount of engineering can prevent flooding... unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals." [link].
- [FT 30July2010; Edward Luce ]: 'The crisis of middle-class America' [link]
- [A1forum30July2010/ comments]: 'Rethinking formula for Singapore Ministerial Salaries' [link].

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