The Sad Plight of the Working Poor in Singapore

           With each passing year, Singapore keeps on getting world class scores in all kinds of things, Our National University is top Asian University in the World University Rankings, the PISA International results for maths and science puts Singapore at No. 1 in the world rankings for secondary and primary school levels. Our per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 4th highest in the world, we have the world's busiest transhipment port in Tanjung Pagar, expatriates find this island really easy to acclimatise, and amongst the best in Asia to live, work and play.

           The glaring underbelly is that Singapore has a very high GINI coefficient, that means the top 10% is many many times richer than the bottom 30%.  It is apparent, from the numbers of people I meet in my daily commute and having my breakfast, lunch or stroll amongst the Housing Board estates and I see the elderly working people cleaning tables, toilets and the like.I know I am only scratching the surface, but the truth of the matter is that there are numerous elderly people in Singapore have to work, many times, in back breaking and demeaning jobs till they are bed-ridden. Many elderly have depleted their savings and depend on their families, or downgrade their housing to live in smaller units, or even stay in rental flats. The young - old pyramid is fast becoming top heavy and our citizen population is under producing due to myriad of reasons, but top of the list is the hectic pace of life coupled with high cost of living.  

           This is very sad. The foreign talent scheme to attract foreign companies and the foreign influx has improved Singapore's total GDP, but overall productivity has taken a hit and has been sliding these past 10 odd years. 

           Singaporeans had climbed up the socio economic ladder quickly through their educational qualifications during the boom years followed first from the 60s - mid 80s there   was a tremendous boom. From 1985 till 1987 there was a deep V shaped recession..Then it was all systems go from 1988 till 1997, when the Asian crisis hit for 2 odd years Things rebounded from 2000. SARS crisis hit our economy hard in 2003. There were good paying jobs and even short term windfalls like the property boom of the '90s, the dot com fever and the huge stock market rise which went on until the 1st Asian crisis. People left their jobs for the 'quick bucks'. When the crisis came, all the fast bucks turned into smoke. In 2008, there was the American Financial Crisis (Lehman brothers and AIG) but Singapore had tightened its credit lending so much so its economy was relatively unscathed.  

          From 2004 till current day, Singapore has seen year on year growth slowing down. What has happened in the last 15 - 17 years is that the economy was in a transformation mode first moving from basic manufacturing, to high end manufacturing, to Research and Development of bricks and mortar (hardware) red and white goods. The banking sector was liberalised and banks were greatly expanding, there were the entry of many high performance managed funds as well as many foreign law firms came in to compete. With the paradigm shift of internet banking, finance, broking and IT, there were plenty of foreign professionals coming to work. Those were heady days, and our economy was further boosted by the opening of 2 integrated resorts or casinos in 2010. The F1 circuit came and is still here. But the new businesses were in value creating apps - jobs like writing code or software security were in high demand. Only a talented few good be trained in those disciplines. 

Elderly Ice Cream Man 

         In real terms, many Singaporeans only got a little leg up financially through from the integrated resorts, the work there were mainly  for housekeeping, car jockeys, security and concierge. It wwas work to just get by. The economy continued to flounder after the US debt crisis in 2008 and Singapore again had more unemployed.   

         Fast forward to 2017, the global economy is  still sputtering, oil prices are diving down again, bricks and mortar plus all physical shopping at all levels are hit in a massive way. Shipping, oil and gas industries are in the doldrums and manufacturing is ,well, almost gone.

        Singaporeans who missed the upward growth and dips of the last 40 years have watched with disbelief and wondered why they missed the boat. Globalisation was meant only for the smart , privileged, lucky and daring few. Many of us are doing 2 jobs like Uber drivers and Food Panda. Its work which pays reasonably well but its work for the young and able-bodied.   

        So the current situation in Singapore is challenging. We are considered lucky having had a good and prudent government who does things in a practical way. They do not spend unnecessarily and save for a 'rainy day'.  But the elderly have few precious years left to live.

       Their plight is more important than all the accolades from all over the world. 

       Spare and thought for them.