PM warning that wages will stagnate unless...

I am sure it isn't just falling wages but worse. Jobs will disappear as well but at the same time there will be many jobs that cannot find the people to fill them. These jobs will have to go to places where they can find the bodies.

The PM is not politically confident to tell you like it is. You have to go away and give some thought to what he says and then fill out the missing bits.

In Singapore business will not do the right thing. Business will just be as business anywhere and will even do the illegal for short term profit if they are confident of getting away with those acts. Sure there are exceptions but they are too few to shape the business character we want.

Even those who wants to think long term can't because the distant future has become too hazy. What was the long term is now the short term because of accelerated change.

Government want business to invest in their workers but most would not because they claim they can't afford to. The trick is to make sure that if their employees fail, they also fail. Any other way their interests will not be aligned. Tripartism becomes mostly a show. You can parade a few examples to the exception but they are not replicated across the economy.

The productivity conundrum cannot be solved satisfactorily head on. It must be achieved as a by product. Business must be provided with the right carrots and sticks to get the right behavior which will cause workers to stop being so disengaged at their workplaces.

 Sure I am blogging for myself and family. If you are the regular employee reading this you will understand what I meant. If you don't most likely you are also working from some corner office. Those types by and large have never got it.

Update: 1:55 pm

Our inability to "set terms and prices" makes it very challenging for us to restructure. Others can slow or even stop to fix their problems but we are like heart surgeons operating on a live heart. Business must still go on successfully even as we are making the necessary changes. We need to invent our own ways to go about this. We cannot borrow from  others. If we can't figure this out, we would have to use our reserves to buy time. People must be told what we are up against but on this score the PM is not up to the mark telling it as it is.