Here is a comment submitted to my survey.
S'pore's economy is traditionally based on an MNC model. It favours MNCs, while locals who are employed are somehow marginalised as "workers" under a capitalist model. And our GLCs also follow this model. As such we are too subjected to "global" influences. So I agree we need our "own culture" and to set own "priorities" with a certain degree of protectionism, for our workers and also local SMEs. The bringing-in of cheaper FTs and general workers further aggravates the situation.
The NTUC and labour union movement is somehow "muted" despite the Govt's selling of tri-partite cooperation. Sectoral differences are wide and exploitation due to non-existent "minimum wage" is valid and true. Even PMETs are marginalised and exploited.
The traditional MNC models was built based on long-term employment and benefits. While seniority-based wage structure was torn down, nothing is done to promote better wages through performance based wages with PMETs getting cheaper and also disposable, thus threatening the firm's core-competencies. Practices by MNC firms are still distorted. It is "caught-in-between" in strategy with cost cutting measures still emphasied in extreme and then the current hiatus towards "productivity". The alignment in policies is still not clear or well-implemented. The re-structuring is necessary.
As the capitalist model of the world economy fails, we need to be more organic ... and firms must evolve more organically towards what the market wants in order to sustain employment, not what politicians wants to be re-elected.
Survey respondent
I think that many people have been hoodwinked by the elites onto the real meaning of free market originally proposed by Adam Smith and other economic writers from before or early in the 20 century: their version of free market is one whereby "a market free from monopoly power, business fraud, political insider dealing and special privileges for vested interests" and not "the market free for predators to exploit victims without public regulation or economic policemen – the kind of free-for-all market that the Federal Reserve and Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) have created over the past decade or so?"(quoted from Michael Hudson: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12418)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately i do not see the US, European or Singapore regulatory authorities doing anything to address this issues. The so called banking acts Basel III is a total political distraction since they are only implemented fully in 2019 and any new regulations will be watered down or will be implemented in say 2020 when the whole world economy might have suffered numerous failures between now and then. Unless the political class can withstood the financial lobbying and do the correct reform, i fear that the Global economy will not endure through any new shocks.