One of the Pacific Rim’s economic “tigers,” Singapore is a citadel of neo-liberalism. Corporate taxes are low, and unemployment is 2.3 percent. Yet sales taxes are high, and blue-collar wages are abysmal. There’s no minimum wage, and the government offers scant protections against abuse and a limited social safety net. In the past 10 years, immigration has nearly doubled. And many of the migrants who clean the rooms and build the skyscrapers live in crowded, rat-infested dormitories with little relief from the sweltering tropical heat. Full story
OPINION: Singapore’s Useful Peasants - Joseph B. Atkins
In These Times, 2 Sep 2010
One of the Pacific Rim’s economic “tigers,” Singapore is a citadel of neo-liberalism. Corporate taxes are low, and unemployment is 2.3 percent. Yet sales taxes are high, and blue-collar wages are abysmal. There’s no minimum wage, and the government offers scant protections against abuse and a limited social safety net. In the past 10 years, immigration has nearly doubled. And many of the migrants who clean the rooms and build the skyscrapers live in crowded, rat-infested dormitories with little relief from the sweltering tropical heat. Full story
One of the Pacific Rim’s economic “tigers,” Singapore is a citadel of neo-liberalism. Corporate taxes are low, and unemployment is 2.3 percent. Yet sales taxes are high, and blue-collar wages are abysmal. There’s no minimum wage, and the government offers scant protections against abuse and a limited social safety net. In the past 10 years, immigration has nearly doubled. And many of the migrants who clean the rooms and build the skyscrapers live in crowded, rat-infested dormitories with little relief from the sweltering tropical heat. Full story
