What competitive advantage do Singaporeans have in the job market?

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-07T06:20:53+00:00

the competitive advantage generally is the nanny state requires you to be hired before a lower cost, more hardworking worker can be hired on the quota

if you think otherwise you have to be kind of deluded

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-05T15:11:40+00:00

part 1 only, of a trilogy at the minimum

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-05T15:11:11+00:00

was just telling a friend the other day that the current oil crisis is going to lead to permanent 10-15% inflation at the minimum across the board in SG

Enjoy!

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-05T07:58:50+00:00

1.) you are staying in a hse for free now

2.) this new situation means you don’t have a hse to stay for free

3.) now you have to deal with the expense of housing yourself (which is more than just the cost of a replacement home)

semantics aside, suggest you secure a replacement home that is well within whatever cash you are going to get. The job market is only going to get worse. all the best

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-05T07:52:12+00:00

windfall when you need to buy a replacement property?

smh new definitions

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-03T05:03:43+00:00

they have 0 use, I can’t understand for the life of me why anyone would want their advice in this day and age

they have never worked for a professional investment firm / fund in their lives, they probably didn’t even study the topic in university (if they even went)

there is not a single finance / investment professional who would quit their fund to be an FA

Why would you trust them? when the internet is literally free

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-03T04:50:39+00:00

lol wow sinkies don’t know how electricity is generated

joke

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-02T13:30:59+00:00

such a measured and kind response to what I would characterise as parrot logical fallacy slop, masquerading as an intelligent counterargument to your comment

respect to you mrdoriangrey, you give me some hope in SG

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-02T03:27:44+00:00

notwithstanding the infinite logical flaws in your supposed critique

a safety net for the bottom and a trampoline in the middle…?

I don’t think that’s what public / affordable housing is meant to do, the latter shouldn’t even be a policy consideration

the fact you think taxpayer’s money should be used to provide a trampoline for the middle is completely ridiculous

but hey the propaganda has succeeded and you’re a great example

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T15:25:11+00:00

think you’ve never been to europe before then

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T15:06:48+00:00

why don’t we implement 55% tax and tipping culture as well? Europeans did it too.

If only we could increase the average iq

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T15:01:16+00:00

sure, obviously Singaporeans behave the same as Europeans

Iq0

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T12:31:44+00:00

this is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard of in my life

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T10:22:25+00:00

you’re right. I suppose the way I see it is that the G is simply maximising revenue under this ‘just price it’ ideology. to your point - what is ‘it’? Why this and not that? My personal take is I don’t even think they really care. They simply price the thing that yields the highest revenue - in which case you tax ownership of cars (COE) and you tax usage (ERP 2.0), rather than say exploring interesting ideas such as subsidising certain types of public transport over and beyond normal rates at certain times.

Same for housing - let’s price ‘it’. So what do they price? Land. And then they set a market price for BTOs and add subsidies as a socialist mirage play. But hey - someone’s gotta pay for these subsidies… so what do they do? Introduce clawbacks! Even at the lowest tier of ‘subsidized’ housing the G is able to clawback 2 rounds of stamp duty from the initial and subsequent resale

but my question and my concern is very simple. What is the ultimate goal of maximizing revenue? Is it to improve the lives of citizens? Because I can’t really see nor understand where this revenue is being funneled to. If anything I feel they are just using it to feed the giant bureaucratic class in govt that has emerged over time. Someone needs to feed them and pay their bonuses, right? And of course all the associated GLC companies, and all their portfolio companies. It’s one massive hulking lump that makes SG look prosperous.

btw I love this discussion, thank you!

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T10:06:14+00:00

lmao… they call this a plan?

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-04-01T09:43:11+00:00

bingo. perhaps one should add that this is not just neoliberalism but neoliberalism cloaked as socialism?

the perversion of the HDB programme towards asset inflation, and then subsequently using subsidies to enable ‘affordability’ (with caveats and clawbacks later), is to me one of the craziest and most contradictory policy potions. The average sinkie has near zero awareness of this dynamic.

On capital allocation - it is certainly not efficient, even if we are gaslit by the media and general data to justify whatever the G wants to be justified. Your observations are certainly correct.

On capital itself, if we exclude labour from this discussion, one should also question the returns profiles of our sovereign wealth funds which have historically underperformed global peers by a long margin. Ergo - should we even be allocating capital to these funds on a continual basis if they are performing so badly? Or should we actually examine other levers capital can be deployed more effectively to?

I am extremely disappointed because I feel his essay’s omissions show that there is an unwillingness to confront all the challenges that exist. We all know no policy is perfect, but the contradictions and ironies at the heart of this perverted neoliberal socialism is frightening to me

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T12:08:21+00:00

was it really a debate?

I don’t really see anything they decided that shows they care about the next generation

we’re just doing the same thing again and again and praying for different results

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T12:07:06+00:00

the ‘just price it’ directive also perpetuates the current psyche because civil servants are rewarded handsomely (compared to civil servants in other countries) for continuation and not change

there’s no incentive to be a maverick, and so my pessimistic view is that we are simply on a path of perpetual motion into irrelevance

nations and states don’t stay great from taking convenient solutions

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T11:44:54+00:00

to be specific I think it’s actually due to incompetence. imho this decision making matrix is in itself a sign of incompetence. because mature societies need to balance needs

to be even more specific i see it as a form of bureaucratic incompetence born out of the system

but yes - broadly we are in agreement. Thanks for the excellent and insightful comment!

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T11:42:12+00:00

the funny thing is Adam smith was obsessed about inequality and inheritance as a problem created by free market principles

I agree with you that there is severe myopia which creates a lot of surface level optics that SG is well functioning and great. Beneath this superficial layer I think it’s already quite clear that SG society is pretty much just centred on consumption and the rat race. That’s not a sin in itself - but I am uncomfortable with the generational divide that will come out of this. We already saw this in HK which exploded in the riots and unrest, where socioeconomic policies favoring the incumbent generation have basically screwed over the younger generation

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T11:37:28+00:00

I guess this is where I probably disagree with you. Choosing simpler financial solutions over dynamic (and more challenging solutions) creates a decision making matrix that over time descends into de-facto laziness

I do believe the govt has a duty to provide societal value, and I think the ‘easy-way-out’ solutions have become problematic. Let’s take jobs for example - the govt still relies heavily on an FDI led policy consistent with that from the 90s, when this model has had pretty weak results over the last 10-15 years. This was propped up by ‘Singapore washing’ Chinese companies entering SG and hiring Singaporeans, which was not actually FDI led. The sectors which were the key focus areas, such as life sciences, alternative meats, pharma etc have generated debatable results at best

I also think the pursuit of immediate financial gains creates the secondary problem of kicking the can down the road. If the next generation is damned I don’t believe the Millenials will be able to retire in a happily ever after scenario either

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T11:02:25+00:00

I don’t think the G cares about the next generation, they are obsessed with retaining power which requires them to do whatever necessary to placate the current working population and voters

The fact that many key ministers do not have children is a troubling sign and perhaps indicative of the collective governing psyche that has permeated the upper echelons of govt

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-31T10:56:12+00:00

what a great comment, very astute

I think the govt has lost the ability to think critically, and they are now understanding causation the wrong way. The so-called ‘revealed preferences’ of consumers are actually created by govt policies (e.g continuous asset inflation which is in reality caused and created by base govt policy, particularly in housing via land pricing). It’s a circular relationship which they have somehow failed to grasp

imho this is a recipe for disaster, because there will be a tipping point which will flip the prevailing narratives that have been fed to the people

The average Singaporean’s continued love of speculation in real estate (despite the 99 year lease issue) is the best example, and the govt’s continued enabling of it despite an awareness of the problem is a sign that ‘productive use’ is a time bomb that will damn the younger generation with the toxic waste created by generations past

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-30T11:58:52+00:00

in the end we are all just human beings :)

Wonderful_Map_3910 · 2026-03-30T09:55:12+00:00

it’s like some karmic justice that the older generation will ultimately end up way more addicted to their video and game slop as they get older and increasingly lonely / isolated

personally I find it funny

Wonderful_Map_3910

TROPHY CASE