It has been a couple of weeks of twists and turns since my last blog entry. Budget 2011 was rolled out amid much cheering and jeering. Electoral boundaries were redrawn and announced, only to bring on another flurry of arguments and counter arguments. In an unrelated incident, a prominent surgeon has been accused of overcharging. That too drew much debate even though to most people’s minds, inflating original bills for “outsourced” treatment from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars is a clear-cut case of poor medical ethics or even fraud. Surprisingly or maybe not, we had a group of experts claiming that charging $450,000 a day is OK.
In contrast, Chinese physicians who called themselves “specialists” and charged a few thousands dollars for a whole course of treatment angered so many people that our health minister had to step in to appease and show his support for the people who complained.
Why is it that some people are so aggressively defended while others are left to die when attacked? How can some plain facts be twisted out of shape and proportion and why do many people still support all this twisting? Why is it that some ill-informed criticisms are not met with robust rebuttals? ABBA has given us the answer more than 30 years ago.
Let me talk a little about the budget. If you have not voted on the adequacy or inadequacy of the buddget, you may do so at the following page:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_636659.html
Over 70% of the population feel that it’s not enough. Are they crazy? We’re talking about $3000 per household. Is that a lot of money? I guess Singaporeans know better. Inflation is getting out of hand. Almost every one of my suppliers has sent me a “revised” price list. The food courts in town have either trimmed their portions or increased the prices of their food by 50 cents. That’s it. I’m packing my own lunchbox every day.
What the remaining budget-happy 30% of those who think that the government’s ang pow is adequate do not realise, is that the increase in foreign worker’s levy will have a huge impact on the prices of goods and services in the coming months and years. I thought encouraging employers to hire locals was still a marginally swallowable explanation for increasing the FWL, but another medicine ball of an excuse awaits our wide-open mouths.
On Channel 8 last week, we hear a panel which did a very good job of twisting the increase in foreign worker’s levy in the SME’s favour by saying that it “encourages” them to automate and innovate. Yao mo gao chor ah? All this sounds very good to the science fiction fans, but let’s get back on earth and count the number of industries for whom it really makes sense to automate in a big way, cutting down on manpower significantly.
And before we make any assumptions about why we need to “buck up” in that sense, let’s take a good look at why we’re not able to compete with neighbouring countries. Is it really because of our low productivity? Is it really because they are more high tech than we are? Is it because we are not faster, better and cheaper?
Talking about cheaper, isn’t it much cheaper, safer and less of a hassle to just increase charges and pass it on to the consumers? Can my suppliers innovate, automate and give me cheaper drugs and materials? If upgrading, automation, innovation are going to cost a bomb and may end up more expensive than using humans, are businesses going to take the risks? Hire robots and fire people? Reducing manpower with technology is an incredibly risky step to take. Mistakes can be life-threatening to a business.
I think in the end, every prudent employer of foreign workers will just charge his customers more to cover the increase in cost. The costs will snowball and hit you hard in the face. Will you still think that your $3000 ang pow (per household) is sufficient?
Surprising yet not surprising that the best analysis of the electoral boundaries for this coming elections was made by a blogger and not a journalist from the mainstream media. Take a look at this remarkable blog entry:
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/electoral-map-virgin-births/
I couldn’t have done it better myself, but knowing such tactics as unfair and knowing the denials and explanations as plain intelligence-insulting, the majority of Singaporeans will still patronise that very prominent chain of chilli crab stalls regardless of the tactics they employ to get so powerful. If there’s money to be made, important guanxi to be established, why not? Let’s do the twist.
