新加坡經濟失敗 Failure of Singapore's Economic Wonder

The Intelligent Singaporean

According to research by journalist Ravi Philemon，a basic family would need SGD$ 1325 a month for survival in Singapore. As Philemon points out this calculation does not include costs for tuition (if the children need any), costs for entertainment (the occasional McDonald’s or movie), insurances or emergencies. Visitors to Singapore might be forgiven to believe in the so-called Singapore's economic miracle, with few visible signs of extreme poverty in the central district. But being poor is not something anyone would gladly flaunt away.

Leong Sze Hian in Singapore's independent on-line media The Online Citizen reports that real wage growth has only been above 1.1% over the last ten years. These disturbing findings go some way towards explaining a latent pent-up resentment from ordinary Singaporeans' towards foreigners' perceived advantages. The real culprits seem to be the Singaporean elite which are not prepared to pay just and fair wages to willing workers. To this elite, nationality does not matter as long as their privileges are safeguarded.
Unequal development and social inequalities have never been a long term winning strategy to turn a country into an advanced and debt-free economic society. The recent examples of Greece, Ireland and Portugal where debt had been accumulated through graft and corruption by the elite and which finally burst their financial bubbles leading to widespread hardship for ordinary citizens could be a harbinger of things to come for Singapore.
And this time, it'll be hard to blame on the Euro.