/// every country, the Government and Labour Movement/Organization play vital and pivotal roles in the wellbeing of the Nation. Mismanagement and abuse of workers will cause much dispute and discontent to the citizenry that will naturally mire any society.///

Every country?
I do not think so.

First we take control of what we can control in our life, and it is more than most people think they can, and what we cannot control, we can only hope the gahmen will do it.

But most posts here dwell on waiting for gahmen to do this and do that, and since they complain that gahmen is useless, not doing anything good for the citizens, then their wait will be in vain.

See my point? It is contradiction.

Permanently in the victim mode state of mind. How is that going to help one move forward in life.

My 2 cents worth of though.

///From the write-ups in the cybersphere and whinnings of most workers///

Cyberspace may not be representative of the entire workforce, probably only representative of the IT savvy workforce who wants to participate in cyberspce discussion.

I think your para 2 is a slanting on the side of generalisation.

The thing that are constant in your life is you, followed by your family and then your work. When you are happy, you create a happy family, and that is carried to your workplace.
With the first 2 is strong, you will change your job if you get nasty employers and will seek one that suits you.
But when you run your life the reverse way, then it harder to be ever happy.
Just my way of looking at things.

In Singapore, exploitations by employers are rampant in the names of competitions, job scopes are enlarge infinitely, works are assign in project form instead of time based. Starting salaries are reduced, annual increments and bonuses shrink and incentives are hard to come by. From the write-ups in the cybersphere and whinnings of most workers, it seems job satisfaction is as remote as to find happiness in everyday livings. And happiness in living is intertwined with job satisfaction making our life as a citizen even more complex.

Dare I say a satisfied employee is likely to form a happy family and happy families are likely to form a happy society and the reverse is just as real. An unhappy individual(employee) is not likely to form a family and if he or she forms one, it is certainly going to be affected by the unhappy employment and the marriage and family will be troubled as a consequence. Many troubled citizens will then translate into a fragile society.

In every country, the Government and Labour Movement/Organization play vital and pivotal roles in the wellbeing of the Nation. Mismanagement and abuse of workers will cause much dispute and discontent to the citizenry that will naturally mire any society.

/// the problem is job satisfaction & protection in the form of employment rights should not be mentioned in the same thread. ///

You got a point there.
Any form of employment rights will to some extend erode the motivation for work, and result in some one else paying for it. Basic right must be institutionalised, wether it is sufficient now is always debatable. From a employer point of view, he wants the best ROI for anyone he employs, from the employye point of view, he too wants the best “ROI” for his time put in his job, when both needs are congruent enogh, the job fit will happen. So you see Blangadeshi workers willingly cleaning our estates at the pay which gave them a deal they cannot get back home, but you will never seee an angmo cleaning our etsate because he has got a better deal back home, no right, no wrong, all relative.

///is like debating about hawker food being healthy & being tasty in one sentence.///
That’s whey D graded hawkers’ food are Delicious because they are busy cooking up great dishes, leaving no time to clean; whereas the taste of the A graded hawkers are Atrocious because they spent all the time cleaning and not honing their cooking skills.

is like debating about hawker food being healthy & being tasty in one sentence.

If these are forced on to the employers by law, employees’ take home pay may be correspondingly reduced when the employers factor all these additional cost when hiring.
If these are to be state funded, the taxes may be increased.

The financial industry is in dire straits, would that have affected the outcome of the survey.

///There is no need to raise taxes to provide better benefits. We only need to discontinue adding to the foreign reserves.///

Mr Tan, you have found an ingenious solution.
Yes. We seemed to have became a nation of overzealous squirrels feverishly saving disproportionate amount for the proverbal “raining day” to the extend of somewhat malnourishing ourselves during the sunny days. If continued for extended period (if 50 years is not extended enough) we may die of malnutrition before we see the rain.

CCR- “I wanna know have you ever seen the rain, coming down on a sunny day”

///Unfortunately, as I read through blogo-sphere, many people give solutions while conveniently omitting the price tag////

Yes, That is the impression I get too.

i won’t consider it indirect taxation — if they were to be owned privately, the taxes will fall under corporate tax.///

I am inclined to agree to the author on this point. Perhaps not so much for JTC, PSA, Changi Airport, but for agencies like HDB,PUB, Singapore Power and its like that touches every Singaporean, the taxes toward these agencies are ultimately paid by the end users.

///and these PRC PRs can be trusted to multiply like pigs and dogs which they couldnt do back in China.///

A little constraint with the use of words here would be helpful.

You brought up an issue that is worth further thought: The current personal income tax revenue, if used for supporting senior citizens only, provide each with $15,000 annually.

Let’s say each taxpayer supports 1 senior citizen on average. What proportion of taxpayers pay more than $15,000 annually? A net annual income of $140,000 pays this amount of tax (at the 14% bracket)

Does it mean that a small group of taxpayers (who are in the top-2 highest tax bracket) pay for almost all of the personal income tax? Does it mean that we are vulnerable to these people leaving the country?

the term job satisfaction is becoming a distant dream when a job (more & more of such) even cannot ensure 1′s survival into retirement age.

That is, job satisfaction would increase if we have a better social safety net so that workers in Singapore do not need to work hard due to lower costs of living to have a better and happier life.

Is this true?

What is happiness? What is job satisfaction? Is happiness tied to being liberated, i.e freedom to do what you want? Or is it tied to the monetary rewards from an employment that had become dehumanised due to the capitalistic system?

This is how welfare state system works: everyone pays more taxes for more welfare which is made equal to all people.

Before we can get this system to work, everyone must have a clear understanding of this principle.

i find some questions with rather limiting options 6) & 8).

in light of the current economic situation, since the nation reserves are spent to minimise job losses. why need to increase tax? more like how the money is spent…

maybe an option for a worded reply would be more accurate an answer?