KJ: LHL will boost SG’s population to 10 million once global growth recovers

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/08/12...owth-recovers/

Beware of this man! LHL will boost SG’s population to 10 million
once global growth recovers


August 12th, 2015 |
Author: Contributions





At
his extraordinary pre-election broadcast moderated by civil servant Chan Heng
Chee, Lee Hsien Loong admitted what I have been saying now for years: the PAP
have no economic plan beyond the simple one they have been using for fifty
years. That is just adding more labour inputs to create more output. They
certainly have no idea of how to raise productivity and Singaporeans’ living
standards.

LHL made the startling admission that the Republic has “maxed out” the easy
ways to drive economic growth. First the Government built factories and created
jobs for men. Then when this pool of surplus labour was absorbed, the Government
looked to bring women into the workforce (the PM let slip here his antiquated
and sexist thinking which relegates women to a secondary role behind men).

When it was no longer easy to get women workers (in other words wages would
have had to rise though LHL is careful not to say that) the Government opened
the doors and flooded Singapore with foreign workers.

All LHL has done is to describe the basic model of economic growth that every
economics student learns. In the textbook model of economic development: once
surplus labour is exhausted, wages rise spurring higher productivity growth and
a move up-market to higher value-added and knowledge-intensive industries.

This did not happen in Singapore. Instead the PAP Government found it easier
and more profitable to allow a flood of cheap foreign labour, which boosted the
profits of those Government-linked companies and MNCs, and indirectly boosted
the salaries of those running GLCs like Mrs LHL.

However this policy hurt ordinary working Singaporeans, first at the bottom
of the wage structure but increasingly at the middle levels where Singaporeans
have to compete with foreign PMETs from much cheaper labour countries.
Frequently they are offered scholarships by the PAP to come here without doing
NS and they walk into Singaporeans’ jobs.

In the interview LHL talks about productivity growth being the only way
forward. Well done LHL for stating the obvious! I have been saying this since
2009.

However it is his Government which has stuck Singapore in a low-productivity
rut and has no idea how to wean itself off its reliance on cheap foreign labour.
He has no idea how to boost productivity and admits as much. Over the last three
years productivity growth has been negative and we are still below the level we
reached in 2007.

What is particularly sickening is the way LHL talks about his obligation to
Singaporeans. He has broken that trust by making Singapore a worldwide magnet as
an easy place to come and work and enjoy a much better standard of living than
you can in your homeland. He has filled our country with second-class PMETs who
would not be able to get jobs at home but who come here to benefit from the low
taxes and the condo lifestyle. Meanwhile Singaporeans have to do NS, which is a
tax, to defend them and find they can only afford a cramped HDB. No wonder so
many Singaporeans want to emigrate.

LHL then has the cheek to claim credit for reducing the inflow. The only
reason the inflow has slowed to a trickle is that global economic growth has
stalled resulting in little demand for Singaporean exports and a slowdown in
tourism. When and if this revives expect the trickle to suddenly become a flood
again. Don’t expect the Government to stop at 6.9 million when growing the
population is such an easy way to grow GDP. The PAP are already planning for
underground cities where most of our grandchildren will likely end up living if
present policies continue unchecked. Our population could soar past 10
million!

The PAP have practised a cheap confidence trick on Singaporeans that would
put most fraudsters to shame. As I have written here,
boosting economic growth by simply letting anyone in is an insane policy for any
country. And LHL and his wife, Ministers, relations and cronies have grown rich
doing so, paying themselves hundreds of millions of dollars because of your
gullibility.

Let GE 2015 be a wake-up call! Let’s put a stop to this immoral gravy train
at our expense!

Kenneth
Jeyaretnam

* Kenneth Jeyaretnam is
Secretary-General of the opposition Reform Party. This article first appeared in
his blog, The
Ricebowl Singapore.


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