Does Singapore need Economic Restructuring II?

[violinist]

"Income inequality is reaching dangerous level"
I guess some people must be laughing off those words from LCY. What dangerous level? How dangerous can it be in Sg?

[KopiKat]

I am treating you as the man who have reached the summit and is now walking down the mountain when I wrote my post:

I'm most flattered! But, do take note that it was only Mt Fuji where even kids and old folks were effortlessly overtaking me throughout the climb!

My question to you if I meet you at the foot of the mountain who would be: "Got drink stalls along the mountain paths?"

If yes! Then I can save myself a lot of heavy lifting by ditching my extra "kiasu" bottles of water!

Yes, there were in fact drinks stalls at different stages. Do bring enough $$ as the price markup was several times. Also take note that there were several paths and only the easy route has alll these amenities (even have shelter area but the charges were rather exhorbitant) along the way. I went down by another more difficult route, so if I were to meet you at the foot, then sorry, no, there were no drinks stalls along that more difficult route.

P.S. I am suspicious of people who tout changes when they are relatively "unaffected" by the changes they propose. It's poking at the source.

As far as I could remember, the source had always been an academia and is an author of Econs textbooks used in our schools. For sure, he + other the policy makers (who may choose to adopt his idea) won't be the ones feeling any "pains".

[Temperament]

How about those who were fortunate to retain their jobs? They were certainly surprised by the sudden larger than normal increment in their pay and CPF

[KopiKat]

How about those who were fortunate to retain their jobs? They were certainly surprised by the sudden larger than normal increment in their pay and CPF

Hey! In case you forgot, you are 60+ years old and should have gone thro' that period in the 80s.

Economic Restructuring I was meant to raise the minimum wages. IIRC, wages of factory workers was something like less than $300 and they raised not just the minimum pay but also the CPF contribution rates to 25% for both worker and employer. So, those factory workers who continued to have a job ended up with a +ve increase in take-home pay. Those higher up in the salary food chain (who still have a job) actually ended up with a smaller take home pay as their base pay didn't increase but CPF rates increased. You could of course argue that there was a pay increase as Employer CPF rate also went up.

BTW, you kept telling all of us your have only ITE. But, I just realised and checked that ITE was only established in 1992. I just remembered I actually applied for VITB (predecessor of ITE) + JC after my Sec 4 while I await my 'O' Level results back then. My memory was suddenly jolted and I sort of remember all those ABC words such as ITC, NTC-I, NTC-II,... before those nice ITE campuses (like holiday resort if you'd ever visited one - ITE Campus @ CCK is open to the public to use their running track, food court, restaurant, supermart,...) came along.

The other thing is, an ITC/NTC cert holder back then was actually considered quite a good achievement. I ever worked in an Electronics factory in the 80s. In a typical assembly line, the Supervisor (Poly Diploma holder) is supposed to be the one in charge. But, the 'King' is usually the Technician (ITC/NTC cert holder) as he's the one with the most hands-on techincal experience. Seems like the Supervisor was usually doing the staff management tasks and paper work like QC report, staff appraisals,...

So, ya, assuming you had an ITC Cert back then, it's not as like 'It's-The-End' as what you'd been saying...

[Jared Seah]

LOL!

I think some of us are freelance private investigators!

Trust but verify! This I like. Hallmark of a true value investor

Jokes aside, I like what ITE has become. Hands on practical skills-sets are the mirror cousins of academic analytical brain-power.

I don't have facts to back me up, but I have a feeling (which is probably wrong) ITE and Poly graduates have a higher %, compared to University grads, in boldly moving toward self-employment or entrepreneurship as business owner.

If we have less to lose (high salaries, corporate benefits, golden handcuffs), we become more decisive and bold

Once we are in the realm of writing our own pay-checks, we are off the radar of those who, with kind intentions, want to put a cap or a minimum to our earnings!

[sgd]

there was a time when people frowned on kids that end up in VITB institute, they say those end up there cannot study, fail psle end up there.

Some of the courses that they taught there like commercial fish farming, no longer in the syllabus, one of my old reservist mates graduated from that course now runs his own commercial fishery is very loaded now not bad for a guy with just Primary 6 education.

I also heard some folks who graduated from precision engineering also later started their own businesses supply precision airplane parts to airline/military industry.

I know these 2 siblings brothers, old neighbors when in their teens the younger went to VITB to learn precision engineering was looked down upon by his whole family and frequently compared to his older brother who did very well in school, the mother always openly in front of neighbors critisize her son "good for nothing" and next moment praise the elder son. Years later today the elder brother is newspaper senior corresspondent. The younger brother that went to VITB setup a company doing precision engineering is a millionaire.

It's an irony no. Many in our generation who did well in school went on to become executives but because of globalization now have to compete like crazy see their jobs outsourced away to cheaper whereas those who learned hand skills are doing very well.

[Temperament]

i think there was an overlapping of ITE & NTC 1 & 2 certification. Those who hold NTC 2 usually did it part time. Most of the time, these people were in the same trade. eg:- TV servicing, factory electronics servicing. After obtaining NTC 2 in TV servicing and if you were in the same trade for a number of years, you could be awarded the ITE cert. So you see even ITE cert is obtained indirectly.
And in one of Liang Cher Chiang's movie, there was a dialogue saying, "ITE means IT"S THE End".
So is there anything wrong with Liang Cher Chiang? or ......society??? OR .......???
And WB:
When Buffett speaks, Fools don’t always agree, but we certainly listen! Warren Buffett famously told BusinessWeek back in 1999:

“Success in investing doesn’t correlate with IQ, once you’re above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”


So i nickname "Temperament" to remind me, myself, do not be afraid of lacking a HIGH IQ. After all the world most successful investor had declared in 1999. It so easy to google if you want to.

NB:
And i started to invest in 1988 and i didn't know who was WB then. Even if i knew, he had not say anything about High IQ & Temperament regarding investment. He said it in 1999.