Originally posted by Gazelle:
Originally posted by Atobe:
continuation
Do you think that Johoreans with a Malaysian Ringgit salary, will
appreciate the fact that Singaporeans has caused the Johoreans'
"cost of food and basic items to increase" ?
With the rise in their cost of food and basic items, and their
Malaysian Ringgit hardly matching the SingDollar wages paid in
Singaporean - perhaps you can answer your own question if 'life of
the Johorean will be better without Singaporeans";.
Your question belie a shrewd underlining attempt to blur the matter
further, in that you are probably mixing the average Johoreans with
the Johorean shop keepers that provide the services and products
that Singaporeans purchase.
How many Johoreans are involved in this trade services - from a
population of 876,033 living in J.B. out of a total of 2.9 Million
living in the State of Johor ?
How many from these 876,033 living in J.B. would you consider -
will benefit in the direct services and trades with Singaporeans
and are manning the shop counters in Holiday Plaza, City Square,
Pelangi Plaza, the Carre Fours, the Giants, the JUSCO, and further
out in the suburbs of Johor Bahru ?
Judging the situation as it is, Singaporeans are the main
beneficiary of a hospitable Johor - when most of the shops at
Holiday Plaza and Pelangi Plaza are owned by Singaporeans, and with
Johor Bahru City Square being 70% owned by Singapore GIC, and many
private housing estates are also purchased by Singaporeans.
What has happened to property prices in Johor Bahru - besides the
increases to the goods and services in J.B. for Johoreans ?
Johoreans are forced to live further out in the suburbs - more then
40 km from J.B. where housing is cheaper, food and services are
minimal but comparatively lower than J.B.
New housing estates are built for Johoreans in Kulai, Kluang, Kota
Tinggi, Muar, Batu Pahat, and Ayer Hitam. The fallout effect is
that car ownership has boomed, causing chaotic traffic conditions
during peak hours as everyone seems to be employed in and around
J.B.
Singaporeans will face similar consequences with an influx of the
super-rich, who will compete with us and surely will drive prices
up, as service providers will cater more to the market that can
afford to pay higher prices; while services for average
Singaporeans will deteriorate.
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I think you should blame the politicians in MY and not the tourists
for spending in JB. Every dollar spend in JB by Singaporeans, is an
addition income to the country, it is how they distribute this
income to the people in JB and ensure that thing such as food items
are being managed. (an example is why we have NTUC fairprice to set
the benchmark price for food items)
Like I said before, Singaporeans buying pattern in JB are different
from the super-rich that reside in Singapore, plus majority of the
food items here are imported from overseas, hence there is less
impact of the cost of manufacturing those products due to the spike
in cost of living in Singapore.
Firstly, the average Singaporeans
by comparison to the Johoreans, will be seen to be richer by far;
and the by a comparison of the standard of wages earned (vis-a-vis)
the prevailing Exchange Rate, the Johoreans will look at
Singaporeans as Super-Rich.
Secondly, for such a large country - by comparison - the Malaysian
Government is doing a better job in keeping costs of essential
foodstuff at an affordable rate and prevent profiteering by the
Suppliers of essential goods.
This can hardly be said of the Singapore Government, where CASE is
run by a Government "annointed" appointee, who will work in
consultation with the major "Price Fixxer" - the
NTUC, also headed by a Government "annointed" appointee.
The basic principle that our first Economics Minister - Dr Goh Keng
Swee - propounded was the advantage of specialization mentioned in
the Economic Theory of Comparative Advantage.
Singapore's advantages are our strategic location and size that
require us to industrialise, and leave the primary and agricultural
sectors to our neighbors with bigger land and human resource.
We were supposed to increase our wealth so as to improve our
purchasing power, and be able to influence and control costs to
ourselves.
With the scale of mass or volume purchase, and the strength of our
Currency, we were supposed to be in a position to buy all our
essential food and material items at a far cheaper price than we
can perform ourselves.
Did we achieve this goal ?
The NTUC certainly did meet the goal set up by Dr Goh Keng Swee in
that it was able to buy in volume all the necessary items needed by
Singaporeans, but these were then sold at prices that are far
higher than in the place of manufacture and sold to their consumers
in the country of origin.
Make a comparative study of prices of essential items sold in
Malaysia and Singapore, and the price can be quite revealing to the
profiteering of a captive Singaporean market.
While we do not expect NTUC to make a loss, we certainly do not
expect NTUC to accumulate runaway bumper profits - year-on-year and
despite giving away discounts through an extended period annually
during National Day.
The accumulated annual bumper profits allowed NTUC to build a glass
castle in the most expensive plot of land in downtown
Singapore.
NTUC's involvement in the Supermarket business was supported by the
Singapore Government - which is totally immersed in any business
that generate dollars and cents by the second into the Cash
Register.
If the Singaporean Super Rich visit J.B. - the Johoreans will think
that Royalty has arrived.
In any case, the Super-Rich do not even bother to visit J.B. as
they have the resources to pay for the even higher priced products
in the up market supermarkets - Jasons, and Cold Storage.
No, it is not the Super-Rich that visit J.B. but it is the
Singaporean Middle and Lower Income Groups that visit
J.B.
"hence there is less impact of
the cost of manufacturing those products due to the spike in cost
of living in Singapore"
No, how can the cost of living in
Singapore affect the cost manufacturing those products that are
sourced overseas ?
BTW, granite and sand quarries in Singapore were shut down in
Singapore, and we were made to be dependent on external sources;
and exposed our weak flanks to external squeezing; resulting in a
string of unforeseen consequences to Singaporeans - paying it all
at the end of the line.
Can you see the difference in that costs or selling prices kept
purposefully by foreigners or by locals, will end up affecting the
Singapore Cost of Living ?