Yawning Bread, 14 Apr 2012Ultimately, Lim Chong Yah’s proposal rests on a belief that unless there is sufficient pain, productivity improvements will not be made. The government however is saying let’s make productivity improvements first, income rises will follow.
I think the government believes in the tooth fairy.
Consider the old saying: Necessity is the mother of invention. Unless it becomes really necessary, businesses and employers are not going to put their minds seriously enough into productivity improvements to yield the benefits the government hopes for.
Partly, this is because productivity improvement is much harder than it appears. It is not just a question of making workers do more; it involves redesign of processes, retraining of people and maybe the elimination of certain jobs. All of these involve costs and goes up against much resistance. There are vested interests to overcome. Full story
