Sometimes, you may read a few Ministers spout some things in the press such as "$1000 monthly salary can buy BTO Flat" or "Foreigners Help to Improve Real Wages of Singaporeans"
This is the reason.
Recently, I attended Our SG Conversation on one area.
Most of the attendents are matured workers who understand some of the policies and background.
On one occasion, a young lady fresh graduate was seen spotted sitting in our focus group of about 6 people. Before we started, the facilitator wanted us to introduce ourselves to break the ice.
She introduced herself as XYZ working in a Ministry as a policy analyst after her graduation in economics. The Ministry was a prestigious place and only scholars can go in to do policy research.
Someone beside her asked her why she was doing here as she could spend the Saturday morning at home. She replied that she was interested in this area as she wanted to be exposed to other areas.
Then, the topic started and I went on to talk about Wage Credit and Productivity Innovation Credit and why some of the policies are hurting Singaporeans and need to be fine-tuned.
While most of us engaged actively, Ms XYZ sat there like a block of wood. She contributed some airy fairy things like "We Must Not Introduce Anti-Competition Measures as this is not sustainable and must reflect true market conditions".
Someone replied that it's because there's too much real market conditions involved and that is hurting Singaporeans and went on to give some examples and there are a lot of behavioural economics at play even when the policy looks good on paper and may not benefit Singaporeans at the end.
After the topic ended, she approached that person and asked how are those policies a failure etc. The person should demand part of her salary and her job for helping her instead.
How can someone so inexperienced and ignorant of the daily struggles be in a position to advise on policy?
CJ
Contributions