Tan Kin Lian's Blog: A fairer distribution of work

Thursday, September 03, 2009

A fairer distribution of work

Many young people are worried about their ability to find a job on graduation. If they are unemployed, how can they repay their study loan and meet their daily expenses, especially if their parents are not well off.

Some people with jobs work long hours, so that they can keep their jobs. In the process, they are depriving other people of the chance to work.

This is a bad capitalist system. It exploits the weak so that the strong can get richer. It creases stress and economic insecurity. It leads to a declining population as many people decide that they cannot afford to raise children.

Is there a better and fairer system? Yes, but we have to think out of the box. To provide the basic needs of every person on earth, there is a certain volume of work to be done. If this volume of work is shared fairly among all the working people, there is no need for anyone to be unemployed or for others to be overworked.

Maybe, each person needs to work only a few hours each day and will have more time for leisure and socialising. They will also have more time to raise a family. If there are more children, there will be more work to take care of and educate the children.

There are advantages for a fairer system of distributing work and rewards - a better quality of life, less stress, more children, happier people. I am describing a more socialist society.

Tan Kin Lian

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mr Tan,

Excellent insight. First three paragraphs share the same vein as Evolution. The strong gets stronger, the weak gets weaker.

However, in Singapore context, we face much more competition. The FT. They are clearly making the residents here more nervous and therefore less likely to raise more children. On the other hand, the FTs have one mission, earn as much as possible. If the going gets tough, they can go back home or better still go to America.

(The Government don't understand this type of competition, since only citizen can take up government jobs. Their position is not threatened. The ministers and MPs don't take public transport and see the real world every morning. One word, they don't face the heat everyday.)

I am more socialist than pro-economic development. In this era, I don't understand why the Government need to push for higher GDP growth every year. To make the country stronger, create jobs, value growth, increase reserve for rainy days? So more FTs are needed to maintain or increase GDP growth.

Of course , no country in the world wishes for a negative growth. But we are see our native people leaving for overseas, reducing in numbers, and the influx of new comers. Is this what our homeland going to be ?

I only wish for a happy life in Singapore.; September 03, 2009 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...: I believe only cleaning ladies earning around SGD600 per month can work part-time in Singapore. Who would want to take up this job if you have a better choice? If you can earn SGD2000 just working part-time, I think there will be enough jobs for all & also happier citizens.; September 03, 2009 9:52 AM
Anonymous said...: apart of fairer work distribution, income shall be distributed fairly as well. the gap shall not be that wide like in singapore. but then again, singapore has no natural resource that could power a more socialist society :(; September 03, 2009 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: I applaud your suggestion but I am afraid it will not be easily implemented.

Why? Becoz ever since the demise of communism, the world has become a BIG capitalist market. The ordinary folks are at the mercy of capital owners, who themselves are aligned with the bureaucracy. The rich want to become richer, and young ones want to become rich and you have the basic ingredient of greed that will perpetuate the capitalist way.

So what will happen? The current global problem is excess capacity, so we will need time to correct them. The consequences will be ugly, besides high employment, banks and corporations will go bust (didn't country like Iceland go bankrupt!) However, the govt's meddling with stimulus packages are going to prolong the cleansing process, my take is that we will be back into the slow growth era of the 70s or the recent case of Japan's "lost decade". 70's is inflation and Japan's is deflation, and I think we are going to have a hyrid of both for the next decade until the whole cleansing process is complete. So expect a lot of booms and busts in markets coming your way.

For me, I will be financially prudent and forget abt the successes we had previously. We were lucky to be successful before the emergence of new markets like china, india etc and we shd be thankful esp those of us who have accumluated riches during the past 3 decades.

For the young ones and those retrenched, they will be in for a tough time (like the Japanese who went thru the lost decade), so they have to adjust their expectations and make do with whatever that comes their way. Looking at Japan's example, not all is gloom and doom, there are successful startups during the lost decade.

The only problem I forsee is that our attachment to the previous successes, lack of assistances and the influx of FTs are going to make this arduous journey even harder.; September 03, 2009 12:02 PM
Anonymous said...: what is FT?; September 03, 2009 1:12 PM
C H Yak said...: I see this as a good and fairer approach to income distribution as well as work-life balance.

I could not support the Minister of Manpower's stand on insisting that there is no need to implement legislations to reinforce the flexi-work arrangements to promote work-life balance.

Regulating the number of hours worked per week / day (even if it means the same 8 hours per day) will support and kick-start this approach for a better work-life balance and quality life in Singapore.

Why is the public service only enjoying 5-day week and 8-hour workday; when the majority in private sectors are working longer hours and without overtime compensation. At the same time, the NTUC is ironically crying about low productivity. Low productivity; in the public or private sector???

If the number of hours worked per day by each person can be regulated, it not only will stop exploitation by employers but goes to support this concept for a fair start. And I am sure this will go on to ensure fairer distribution of work and ultimately fairer income distribution and lesser reliance on the tax regime to distribute income. Not leaving to exploitation; both those willing and/or unwilling to work for longer hours at miserable low wages imposed by employers.

Retrospectively, it will make obsolete the "unfair" policies implemented by the Govt. previously when using the CPF as an economic tool during the downturn years.

To support this whole new concept, complement it with a "minimum wage" policy.

The MOM is taking a "chicken" out stand to pacify employers on the wrong assumption that our economy will suffer as a result, but at the expense of the work-life balance and quality living for the ordinary population.

If the Swiss Standard of Living in 1990 is still the benchmark, why are we working at least 45 hours per week. I am sure Europe was working less than 40 hours per week then.

Is not the "flexible wage system" already in place gnerally as claimed by the NTUC?; September 03, 2009 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Have you heard about the 35-hour workweek in France? They tried limiting the maximum number of hours worked per week. This went on for several years, but did not result in higher recruitment after all. Perhaps it would work in Singapore, where employers have greater "labour freedom" (i.e. the freedom to retrench their employees without making large payouts).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek; September 03, 2009 3:00 PM
C H Yak said...: To : Anonymous 3:00 PM

I believe in Singapore it will work. Many works beyond 45 hours per week.

I used to work for a Korean MNC contractor. The official working hours were 8am ~ 7pm on weekdays and 8am ~ 12pm on Saturdays for Singaporeans. To the FT who were cheap Filipino technical staffs, they were even willing to work up to 5pm on Saturdays contractually despite the lower pay. The Koreans even work beyond these hours depending on whether the Boss leaves on time.

There certainly was disparative pay and benefits to cater for each group.

I recall my boss stick a ST newspaper cutting with headline "Europe looking forward to longer working hours" on his notice board to motivate us to work longer hours. That was just around the 911 and SARs crisis. I politely told him Europe was working 35 hours but Singaporeans with the company were working 54 hours then. He acknowledged I was looking beyond the newspaper headlines.

I believe in the private sector, many are working beyond 45 hours. Even stating this 45 hour as a statutory limit may work the model. Forget about 54 hours as was my case without any OT compensation. There was just the 13th month and no other bonus to go with.

Our MOM thinks there is no requirement to restrict the number of hours worked because they are working 5-day week and less than 45 hours. They refuse to realise what is happening in other industries and the sectorial differences. They resist "CHANGE" and do not see the "need to change".; September 03, 2009 4:59 PM