I have a cousin with consistent straight As and in one of the top educational institutions in Singapore. He aspires to be a bus driver. There is an implicit 'however'. Impressive academic portfolio does not equate to the luxury of choices. Instead, it can be limiting. We seem to be immersed in a culture whereby people are constantly chasing after perceived needs, complaining about heightened costs of living and fighting for rights. With regards to career decisions, the scale is often tilted towards what we need to be, rather than what we want to be.
As I was trying to digest the economics of this opinion piece, I realized opponents of the minimum wage scheme are often selfish. Letting wages subject to market forces have many advantages. Low wage preserve profit margins for employers. Low wage keep businesses, and the government can spend less and work less hard to keep them here. Low wage also controls workers in nasty ways. All these are motivated by self-preservation at the expense of the vulnerable.
A quick check online will tell you that most countries in the world, especially the most advanced, have some form of minimum wage scheme in place. However, I would expect that this issue would be less vocal in years to come because as the white paper puts it, two-thirds of Singaporeans will hold PMET jobs in 2030. The problem - many of the workers holding the lowest paid jobs are not part of the electorate. Does this make them slaves in this modern society, or is this just the price to pay for progress?
