Globalisation has a downside for Singapore

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

While Singapore looks set to do well economically in an increasingly globalised world, domestic concerns - such as increasing social inequalities and a perceived lack of political freedom - are still aplenty, said speakers at the Institute of Policy Studies' annual Singapore Perspectives 2006 forum.

Other than intensifying economic competition and Singapore's increasing susceptibility to problems originating elsewhere (such as with Sars), globalisation will accentuate social inequalities, said Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan.

'Those with unique marketable skills will command First World wages, whilst those without relevant skills will have their wages dragged down by the going rate in the Third World,' he said.

- I believe the Minister has just about described the ongoing "Race to the Bottom". For the vast majority of the people who are not in the fortunate position of having "unique marketable skills", they are the ones who are currently involved in this peculiar race.

Just think about it. By definition, "unique" means being different from the majority. Having *unique* skills means having skills that, by its very definition, the majority of the population DOES NOT POSSESS. By extension, if anyone attempts to restructure the entire society such that more people have these skills, they will, again by definition, be NO LONGER UNIQUE. Wonderful, isn't it? The impossibility of the current situation.

Back to the original question which I posed to myself in Sep 2003, regarding all those folks unemployed due to the wonders of globalisation and outsourcing : "... are they going to upgrade their skills to become top-notch aerospace engineers, broadcast engineers, coders, researchers, or biotech scientists too?"

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