we import prcs and indians today, while their income back home
is lower than ours.
they are "chosen" since they are racially, and to some extent,
culturally similar to us.
but these are emerging powers. Eventually, they will grow to
become the next USAs, and what happens when Singapore then is no
longer attractive to foreign workers?
what do we do when all these workers leave?
Do we then seek out other sources of cheap labour? import
workers from rest of asean? from africa?
if 1 million indian and chinese workers are already have such
negative impact on us, imagine what 1 million africans,having a
totally different culture, would do.
racial issues aside. Right now, our basic infrastructure is also
overly reliance on foreign labour. without them, bus services would
not run, construction will stall, garbage will pile up, factories
will shut down.
this is of strategic importance. if s'pore ever becomes
unattractive to these foreigners, who will do these jobs?
we need to nurture our own people to not shunt these jobs, and
to do that, we must first start by giving decent salary, a figure
that reflects the nature of the job.
We should also rethink our branding of the term "talent". People
who are willing/able to work in jobs are others are
unwilling/unable to do, should be labelled as "talents", and
therefore be paid as such.
yes, menial jobs might not require much technical expertise, but
I feel that effort should be compensated regardless of one's
education. Why should the hours spent labouring under the sun be
compensated less than hours spent in front of a desk?
The latter is taxing on the brain, while the former is taxing on
the body. Both are taxing on the individual in their own ways. The
labourer is working at the expense of his health, and i do not see
why his effort is valued less than that of an office workers.
I'm not advocating that labourers be paid more than
professionals, but i feel that the discrepancy in salary should not
be so far off, as with the current situation.
