Dairy of A Singaporean Mind, 14 Apr 2012For a population that is fairly literate in economics, I think people can appreciate the logic of Professor Lim's arguments and understand the risks involved. There are trade offs and uncertainty - we should not over simplify the the current situation and the severity of the problems we face with income inequality, rising poverty and low wages. Today, 400,000 Singaporean workers or 1 in 5 earn less than $1500 [Link] in a city that is the 9th most expensive in the world to live in[Link] surpassing New York, London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. Unlike the other cities, we have no rural or less expensive areas for the poor to run to escape the pain of poverty. Singapore has little in the way of safety nets and welfare to mitigate the effects of poverty and large income gap. If we want to avoid welfare spending, we have to get wages up to otherwise there will be severe economic pain among a large segment of Singaporeans. So far nobody denies there is a problem just how to best to fix it and whether it warrants "shock therapy". Full story
