The onion of class layers in Singapore

By the time academics get interested and mount a serious study on this subject, this has been the situation of quite a few years already.

There are a few useful charts from their report I want to archive here for future reference.

The brief quotes of the four are also useful.

LKY felt the inevitability of classed society and believed that nothing can stop it. His early colleagues who would have challenged him were long gone and replaced by less confident younger people and many yes men and women. So this is what we are saddled with now.

Don't analyze or write too much or risk reading too much. One takeaway: By far better to have higher than lower relative incomes. Not just incomes but relative incomes if we are to read and understand these charts professionally.

Some speculation. If we are have more similar incomes would we then travel towards the middle? More research and thought would be needed to answer this properly. For now we know from the article that the top half of income earners are a huge number of people. Unless many in the more desirable half believe in social equity, the bottom half risked being sidelined. I have faith in Singaporeans not to be like that. Except for the business elites, this government never consulted us on their economic strategies much less growth model. Politically that was complacent and taking us for granted. Given enough time the opposition parties do not even need to do very much but wait for the PAP to trip themselves up. I thought the ruling party was capable of much better. Because if such a strategy of patience works, it will also be effective when used by our neighbors against us. But the PM has become afraid to tell us that only the paranoid survive.

Here are some insightful comments from the researchers.