End inflationary policies now

Sorry but I cannot support a minimum wage. Australia, HK, Norway and the US (frequently quoted as having minimum wage) are either exporters or points of export of rare earth, energy, or other natural resources which are highly inflationary in nature. The taxes and profits from these exports allow for a minimum wage to be set. Singapore does not have any natural resources which we can obtain at zero cost.

Instead, I favor fighting inflation. Deflation is not a dirty word. It all depends on how you measure growth. Inflation is a misnomer. It is actually the devaluation of each dollar you earn, such that over time, you can buy fewer goods. Poor people are created by inflation, not "low" wages. Remember, that once upon a time, $1000 a month was enough to comfortably raise a family. Inflation ended all that. A minimum wage will not solve this problem.

What we need are minimum skills and technological investments. Human beings are tool builders. On our own, we pretty much suck. We aren't the fastest, strongest, or most agile creatures, but we can make cars, forklifts, bicycles, pulleys, ropes, etc.

Singapore can never get to the tool-builder stage as long as the focus is on inflationary policies designed to suck the life out of the population via rent seeking activities. The capital is malinvested in more real-estate instead of skills training and technological innovation. We need an alternative policy that looks at how to arrive at an inflation rate of zero.

If we fought inflation, we would be able to purchase equal or more goods each day. Consider the tech industry. Each year, you can buy a faster computer at a lower price. Some of the best paid workers are in this industry. There is no need for a minimum wage in the Silicon Valley. As long as we are doing productive things, we can do a lot more with a lot less.

When deflation kicks in, the people who would benefit most are the savers. Currently, inflation destroys our purchasing power, so we are forced to spend and take risks (invest) today, instead of saving for our less-productive old age. Let's turn this problem around. Yes, we can!

End the madness of inflation. So what if our houses become cheaper tomorrow? Does that matter? Wouldn't you be happy your kids can afford a home?

We can easily cut inflation by reducing the number of people on the island. The larger the population (citizenship is irrelevant, just talking numbers here), the higher the demand for limited goods and services (see para 1, Singapore does NOT have natural resources). This creates an environment where only the rich and connected (cronies) gain access to resources while the rest of us suffer playing catch-up. When the malinvestments fail, the risk-takers get a bailout, subsidy, grant, or M&A deal while the rest of us are told to foot the bill. Adding insult to injury, if we so much as miss a payment, the lights go out on our homes. A minimum wage cannot stop the electric company from switching off the lights as energy gets more expensive.

The answer is not a minimum wage, but a maximum inflation rate of zero. That's right. Write a law where if inflation goes over zero percent for any given year, all MPs and Ministers take a pay cut equivalent to the inflation rate compounded throughout each term they are in office. If this becomes law, I promise you we will see an end to the madness of inflationary policies and the "worst-case" of 6.9 million population (doesn't matter if they're foreign or local, too many people = inflation).

We always say Singapore has no natural resources and the only resource we have is our people. Let us start walking the talk. Invest in people, not buildings. Invest in skills, not numbers. Invest in tech, not false economies. We can turn this around, but not with a minimum wage.

It only takes a spark

Sometimes it feels like we live in a broken nation. Nothing seems to work. We've lost that sense of who we are. Our leaders appear lost and unconvincing. Our social ties breaking at the seams. Yet when two precious lives were lost, our people came together.

No one said NIMBY. No angry Facebook posts about light pollution. We just lit candles and shared a moment of silence to remember who we are, and what we've lost. How much we treasure each other.

This picture gave me a glimpse of what Singapore could be. That even in our darkest moments, hope is kindled. Don't give up. Not yet. #fixsingapore

6.9 million reasons to invest in our future

Do you know that the average boss in a corporation today has fewer assistants despite having more responsibilities? There used to be office boys sending letters and coffee, and two to three personal assistants following a boss around. We don't have that anymore.

This is because of improvements in education and technology, so we no longer need someone other than the boss to draft a letter, record notes, and constantly plan and manage the boss' diary. A lot of the work in the workplace is self-driven.

If we invested in training our people and building new technology, would we still need the same number of foreign workers to support our economy in 2030? Why do we keep spending on low productivity foreign workers who have no ownership or future here, when we can invest in our own land. This is OUR land.

Let's try to find a solution instead of this show of closed-mindedness from both sides. We care for our future, so let's build the one which works for us, not the hell we currently live in.