To compete for some outside pie or to compete for inside pie. For inside pie, better keep it local as both cost & profit (a matter of degree on how much it is being skewed or shared between employees & employers) likely to stay local unless for import or foreign travelling, etc.

If manual labour is priced low, it will always stay low (no minimum wage) as cheap labour (if encouraged bcos of policies) from third world can always do it. If manual labour is priced decently, it forces a more balanced redistribution of income in fair favour to manual labour and hence build sustained competence (quality) in this area (e.g australia, europe, etc) which will not be lost to other countries.

Yeah, for outside pie, you may need outside talent to capture value which your own local can’t do it (perhaps because of culture / language) so it is still a net gain to the country.

“to wkc, you can decouple foreign labour to to the economy to some extent if we can restructure the economy.”

To some extent, the answer is Yes, possible. We can only do without foreign workers if there are enough locals for every industry. Right now we do not have enough manpower resources or the capability to make it an all-Singaporean affair. Anyway, it can be interpreted as nothing more than national sentiments. Moreover all talented or people with special skills have a role to play for the betterment of our economy – whether they are foreign nationals or Singaporeans.

ckw, good points.

Yes, priority should be accorded to Singaporeans for jobs where they can fit in and have applied for. I would assume that such is, GENERALLY, the norm for our govt and “SINGAPOREAN” companies. But there may be exceptions of course, for example, the new CEO appointed for Temasek and the CEO of DBS Bank. Some people may not agree and think we have local talents to fill such places. We cannot rule out the issue of subjectivism, where the human mind is at play.

Everything is interrelated lah. It depends on how you want to build a case on it lah. That is where scholars come in lah.

More people = more commuting = more excuse to impose charges on road use or anything to do with commuting = charges imposed either on car (COE), road use (ERP) and oil (tariff).

The Oil Kingdoms and the Oil Companies are ever ready to prey on the end users. When prices dropped they reduced productions to prop the prices, when world economy is good and consumption increases they raise the prices.

Unless other viable alternative fuel sources are found, these oil traders will fleece the consumer no end. As owners of oil they are always in a position to manipulate the price of oil, who can deny them ?

Oil Owners are perpetually menacing in good times or in bad because these people are bad.

I agree with you that we need foreign workers in certain industries like construction and shipbuilding. There simply aren’t enough Singaporeans that have those skills or are simply not willing to look for employment in those sectors. I think the point of contention is having foreign workers in our retail sector, IT sector etc and other sectors where Singaporeans can and are willing to work in.

check out lucky tan’s website for more details: http://www.singaporemind.blogspot.com

law, you appear to have overlooked that Singapore has depended largely on foreign workers and the contributions of foreign workers, in many areas of our economy, have helped to bring our economy to what it is today. One major contribution from foreign workers has been, and still is, in the construction industry; their efforts have immensely made the construcion of our MRT lines, trains and stations and other infrastructures a reality. And what about domestic maids? Aren’t they considered as foreign workers? Why do you think tthere are so many thousands [over a hundred thousand] of domestic maids in Singapore?

There is no way you can decouple the linkage between our economy and the foreign workers stationed here. Some foreign workers been granted citizenship status and therefore for this particular group they are now Singaporeans and not foreign workers. Do you agree? And do you know that it has been reported – this was in the past, before the downturn in the economy – that some Singaporeans were found unwilling to be engaged in certain jobs?

David [#1] says: “I hope foreigners will start disappearing and Singaporeans can return to its condicive living environment”…

My questions to David: [1] Can Singapore do without foreigners? and [2] Which foreigners are you referring to? are completely legit in the brief argument I was trying to present.

I am amazed with your comments, especially this part:
“Please do not link the economy with the foreigners issue that David brought up. this is what the government is arguing (henceforth i think you have been deeply brainwashed by the PAP) from but this is not what many of us are arguing about.”

And you think that my post #3 is a result of my having been deeply brainwashed by the PAP?

Are you serious? It is simply mind-boggling!

Please do not link the economy with the foreigners issue that David brought up. this is what the government is arguing (henceforth i think you have been deeply brainwashed by the PAP) from but this is not what many of us are arguing about. Our wish for a good decent life is about reducing the population of singapore and in our present situation, this is about reducing the foreigners. Furthermore, they do not integrate well in the short time and we also fear that they do not understand how we became a nation and the racial problems that we faced in the early days of nationhood. In the long term, the ‘more foreigners’ issue could be a backlash for our nationhood.

The world we live in has become very complex, David.

Singapore may not be able to return to the kind of conducive living environment as described by you.

[a] Singapore at stage 1 with few or no foreigners
[b] Singapore at stage 2 with plenty of foreigners [some of whom have since become Sinaporeans or permanent residents]
[b] Singapore at stage 3 without foreigners [which foreigners are you referring to?]

Can stage 3 be a workable environment, with the economy humming along in the way you envisioned?

To be sure, being idealistic is not the same as being pragmatic.