I don’t think we should begrudged people their good fortune. And it is indeed their good fortune to work in Singapore and live in Malaysia or Philippines etc.
What is not acceptable, is that our own Ministers, when they talk about us competing fairly, that spurs be stuck into our asses coz we are not competitive, have never considered the long term imbalance of a system that they have advocated and promoted. The system keeps cost low for employers but lowered the standard of living for most Singaporeans.
And this will overtime, means that our retirees will start to move overseas to boost their standard of living or at least lower their cost of living; this inadvertently means that Singaporeans will lose their sense of nationality. Who wants to serve a country that sucks up our youth and displace us when we are old?
Yes, foreigners do have a place in our society, some more, some less, but there is no serious discussions to have a strategic plan to see how a Singaporean remains to live viably in Singapore. We already know that retirement savings will not be enough for most.
We cannot ask for all the luck in the world. But we have all the right to ask what is our Government’s plans for Singaporeans’ retirement? In other words, how is our ability to make a living commensurate with retiring in an increasingly expensive Singapore?
We have talked about the same starting point for our children through education. But what is the use of that, when they go into the working world, they find that they are already 3 steps behind other foreign workers?
In fact, if you take globlisation through its conclusion, we will definitely be retiring abroad. If that is the case, please prepare the plans and the groundwork. And how is the concept of being a Singaporean mean in this scenario? What is our game plan?
BK