Workplace ethics is more about the worker. Business ethics is more about the employer.

I believe you meant to talk about Business ethics, more specifically, wages.

The drawing up of legislation is not usually an easy task but probably necessary because work equity is something good employers will grant but bad employers won't.

A good employer will still do his best to provide all in his community with jobs so people can make a living eg hiring a disabled person although they may not be as productive. End result is the community is happy and all can make a living without government stepping in to provide assistance.

Bad employers only hire the best as this is best for their business, they don't care about livelihood or the state of the community. There may not be an impact on the community because there are still good employers around.

However in time, the good employers are forced out of business because they are not as competitive. The market is now only stocked with bad employers.

Now portions of the population become unable to find jobs and become needy. Poverty and unemployment generally leads to discontent and crime. It was the efforts of the good employers which held most of this at bay.

Now the bad employers move away because of the crime and degenerating environment further exarcerbating the problem and the location becomes depressed.

The law seeks to punish bad employers who practice this sort of hiring practice. Look at it not in terms of discrimination or in terms of economic principle but in terms of actively discouraging the kind of pickyness and social irresponsibility that will lead to the above negative social scenarios. The law will make more sense then.

Originally posted by maurizio13:

 

Government supporters will claim that it's an act of god (force majeure).

If it was raining, they will say the rain caused the trunk to fall.

If it wasn't raining, they will say that the wind was too strong, thereby causing the branches to snap off and land on the car.

If it wasn't raining or breezy, they will claim that the heat from the sun was to intense and resulted in the subdermal destruction of the fibres which resulted in the trunk falling on the car.

If it wasn't raining, breezy, or sunny, then they will claim that it's supernatural force from spirits which cause the branch to snap and fall. Some will even claim that it's retribution for the driver and passenger.

Whatever it is, it is not the fault of negligence from governmental agencies to ensure the safety of these trees.

I think acts of God doesn't include things that happen with frequency eg, rain, hot sun, windy.

 

I'm also curious if Hyper has found that source yet.

I thought that would be enough money?

Originally posted by eagle:

Reddressman, just like I have questioned and provided you contacts to the MPs for asking your questions, I can give you the location of the next job fair for these so called "Big Companies". Yes, IBM, Intel, Makino etc.

You can come to the job fair in NUS MPSH on 21~22 Feburary to question the big companies. I can wait for you at Clementi Station to bring you there if you do not know how to go.

But I guess you rather sit at home in front of your computer and bark like a little dog without knowing what is going on at all.

I guess i should go too. I'm looking for a better paying job with less work, less responsibilities, shorter hours and more benefits. Since everyone is saying that the youth are too demanding, I'm sure I'll be a competitive choice and still get an upgrade.

Viva le revelution!

I not good with numbers so I haven't had a chance to look at the new CPF policy to crunch numbers and form an opinion.

Speed dating was an idea that sprung up in the US mainly by bars and clubs so that they could still make some money during down times, eg those weekdays when few people went out drinking. Think Zouk tea dances on Saturday at 4:00pm.

It was a marketing idea to attact customers who did not have luck picking up sexual partners during a normal night out.

The rational was that if you chatted someone up and got turned down, your chances to pick up the next person falls if there were witnesses to your being turned down. Generally because everyone doesn't know each other and so assumed that you were turned down for a reason and there was no need to go through the whole chatting up with you. You had been pre-disapproved. Conversely people who get picked up usually have a higher chance of getting picked up again.

That led to bar hopping, where if you were turned down at one bar, you'd save time and go to another bar where your chances were supposedly better as you hadn't been turned down there yet. More people started bar hopping to see their friends who might be in any number of bars and probably didn't get lucky and go home with a stranger. So it became a fad.

After a while, bar hopping begin to be seen as being desperate. You either could not get laid or you were a stalker and needed to get your own life. Only those not in the know thought it was trendy and this was falsely maintained by celebrites bar hopping so the paparazzi had a greater chance of taking their picture with the current love interest.

It became noted that the old formula of put alchol in a room and watch the customers come in was old school and new marketing ideas begin to proliferate.

Someone then came up with the bright idea of "speed dating" that allowed you to chat with someone. Your preferences were recorded down and then you'd be put in touch with that someone if you both happened to pick each other out from the crowd. You didn't have to spend a lot on drinks, you got to speak to a large number of potential real date material, it was an efficient use of time and most of all, it was private.

It became a real fad but after a while it became the fashion to believe that people who went on speed date sessions after speed date sessions had been more efficiently rejected by even more people and were therefore even less worthy of consideration and so it fell out of fashion with the bar crowd as it had the taint of being the resort of misfits.

The less knowlegeble crowd still thought it was a good way to date but they are becoming fewer and fewer.

So basically there is a time and limit to the use of speed dating and I think Singapore has already passed that "use by" date.

Let's face it, money is too intrenched in our culture. Short of a major holocast that wiped out 90% of the population, I don't foresee it ever leaving us.

I think the situation in Malaysia arose because Samy Vellu was the one who spoke to the Indians for calmness.

So they went to him to tell him why they were not calm.

And he agreed to look into it.

That's all that happened.

If, however, he doesn't keep his word, he will not be trusted and will be looked on as a mouthpiece and no attention would be paid to his words in the future. That would end his career as a politician.

I'm happy just to read posts without too many acronyms or phonetic translations or slang.

eg. Wah lau eh, you the can, lol, you PAP ta lau ke meh?

Originally posted by White_SoulReaper:

TS, i dun get how s'pore youths work to slavery... They leading stressful life so that they could have better lives in the future...

 

Lets compare to african youths, at age 14, parents die... No one to take care of him/her and his/her siblings... So the youth go to werk... So many mouths to feed and in the end will they lead a smooth life? They will keep struggling till they die lor... That's slavery! Wen can they enjoy life?

 

You wanna switch places wif them? sure they want one... Then u'll appreciate what youths in s'pore have...

Quit whinning & grow up la...

 

 

SHUMINIST

I think we can all agree that Foreign relations is a very complex subject.

I doubt if China's interest in Australia is solely for it's resources as China has resources of it's own.

Just as an example, if China expressed interest in Australia's coal and mineral mining companies, it may simply be because they want to improve the collection of their own resources in China and one way is to invest SWF in an Aussie company then give that company access to mines in China. The company's value goes up and the initial SWF investment appreciates and China gets to collect it's minerals more efficiently.

The downside is that the money circulates outside Australia and the company's prosperity boom artificially boosts the country's economic statistics without there being any relevant benefits to the local economy and people. Australia effectively loses the benefits that company may have brought to the economy (eg jobs, training, money etc).

China can then take the trained staff PRC staff and set up their own expert companies, first selling off the stock they bought earlier in these Aussie Companies and reinvesting it in their own.

I think we need new economic theories for "global" markets as the old ones don't work so good and can get pretty misleading.

That's funny but I agree. Chinatown is not as Chinatownish as Geylang.

I may have to coin a new phrase other then WeeShuMinim to describe the mindsets in here.

Redress, MNCs pay you what you're worth and put you on contract so that you don't get complacent and keep working so that your contract gets renewed.

 

Bang Hong is also right. That's why you ask for more pay as insurance against those times.

 

I didn't understand Hyper's post.

 

Curryman, an FT from malaysia working in a singapore company isn't exactly relevant to MNC discussion.

 

Sgdiehard, I agree with many of the points you made. Including not being able to understand Hyper ;)

 

Hyper, while I agree with the point you make, I think it's not complete and a little misleading.

Best to ask CPF but I understand you have to put back in what you took out. The rest is yours to keep.

Answer should be 80k goes back into CPF.

There are other ways to be competitive.

 

Government may grant tax breaks.

Government may grant subsidies.

Government may pass laws to bolster business.

Government may change spending habits to bolster business.

Government may take on the intial burden to set up then hand over to business to manage.

Companies may replace labor with Technology to lower costs.

Companies may supplement labor with technology to increase productivity.

Companies may source for cheaper materials.

Companies may source for cheaper labor.

Companies may streamline production processes.

Companies may reduce wastage.

Companies may lobby for changes in laws to bolster business.

Companies may diversify.

Companies may specialize.

Companies may enjoy economies of scale.

Individuals may ...

become "more" productive? never say die? accept lower salaries? Make Plans? Don't have "me" time? Allow themselves to be scolded? Allow themselves to be worked long hours? "Change" without bitching and crying?

 

All hail WeeShuMinism and her diciples.

Dear Robert,

I sympathize with your feelings. I keep certain things in mind when I look at these things.

Firstly, running a government and a country isn't easy. I'd assume that most times we'd try to look for other models and policies to follow rather then shape our own because we may not have sufficient confidence and expertise to shape our own.

We're also constrained by having to choose policies from other countries that may be fundamentally different from our own and such policies may not have their intended effect or have unplanned effects. Some would include the unexpected social impacts of economic policies.

You brought up many good examples of policies that can be improved. Do you have suggestions for policies to address these issues?

Troll?

Originally posted by maurizio13:

Inflation is an overall increase in prices or a loss in purchasing power. One dollar in 1960s can buy you many bowls of noodles, one dollar these days can't even buy you a bowl of noodles, that's inflation.

 

If say a bowl of noodles once cost $1.00, but say with an increase in 10% GST. The same bowl of noodles now cost $1.10, the cost of the noodles after GST has been inflated by $0.10.

 

"A  simple commonly used definition of the word inflation is simply "an increase in the price you pay or a decline in the purchasing power of money".

In other words, Price Inflation is when prices get higher or it takes more money to buy the same item.

Inflation is measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States using the Consumer Price Index. "

 

If you say foreign goods should be cheaper, then why are our cost of living increasing?

 

Inflation is not always necessarily a monetary phenomena. Supply shocks (reduction in supply) or demand shocks (increase in demand) can also cause price levels to change.

 

Huh?

Price increases is not inflation?

Maybe you can elaborate further?

 

Maybe you can elaborate what type of import taxes were reduced?

 

I hope this sheds more light on the topic of inflation.

 

Thanks Maurizio13 for your educated response.

I think the perception of inflation has been confused mostly because it has been frequently taken out of context. Inflation should be viewed in the context of a free market economy (not a regulated one) and in such a context, inflation is considered good. The printing of unbacked currency has made inflation as a standard of measuring economic development meaningless.

The points you raise actually argue that the price increases we experience are not completely inflationary in nature as we don't seem to be enjoying its benefits.

The problem arises when prices are artifically raised and then the raised prices are described as the effects of inflation. This gives people the illusion that the economy is developing when all that is happening is that prices have been artificially manipulated.

I don't know if import taxes were reduced.

Funny.

Indigenous Singaporeans were the Malaysians.

The problem lies in the difference between reports based on mandatory government enforced programs and schemes based on market competition.

Also most reports are made with some fundamental assumptions. I don't know what those assumptions are so I'd have no idea if the reports are realistic.

Without more information, I can't really tell very much.

Condo conservancy charges do not include water or electricity to the homes.

The stronger the Singapore dollar is, the cheaper foreign goods are. Potentially you see more foreign goods available, not necessarily an increase in their prices.

Inflation is the situation where there is too much money in the market. Symptoms include rising prices. GST increase does not cause inflation, just raises prices, not to be confused with inflation. In the case of a market with inflaction, the rising prices does not cause spending to decrease. However in the case of GST, spending can be expected to decrease.

A GST hike accompanied by a lowering of import taxes may not cause an increase of imported good's prices. It's important to know if import taxes were reduced or if changes in other relevant policies occurred concurrently.

I hope that clarifies things somewhat.