You can't level the playing field, so what can you do?

Hello everyone. Now it is not often that I 'attack' another blogger for his/her point of view, I believe that everyone is entitled to their point of views and we can't always expect to agree with each other. However, when I see a blogger say something provocative to try to get a reaction or please his/her followers on social media, I do feel the urge to hold them to account for what they have said. Please, if I may explain that I am certainly not picking a fight with this blogger and I have already informed her that I am going to blog about this - this is not about 'naming & shaming', this is about me offering an alternative point of view on the issue, one based on the fact that I am an older man who has spent a lot longer in the big, bad working world, earning my keep. To begin with, here is the statement she posted on Facebook:

I've had many years of experience in the big, bad, working world.

"I think it is simply unfair to ask Singaporean youths to accept lower pay for PMET positions like their counterparts from developing countries working here are doing i.e. Filipinos, Vietnamese and Malaysians. Some believe that we should do so to 'remain competitive' and if we don't, we are 'entitled and lazy'.I think it is unfair to compare our youths with those from other countries. They are earning a lot more here than they would at home due to our exchange rate . When they return, they will be very rich. In contrast, Singaporeans need more money to buy a house here, afford necessities and save up for retirement here. While I think Singaporeans should not accept lower pay, I am not in any way saying that Singaporeans should earn more than foreigners. I think both should earn equally good pay. A first world economy where businesses survive largely because wages are kept low is simply unsustainable."

Okay, I get it: so she wants to level the playing field by making sure that no one can try to get an advantage over local Singaporeans. Is this a realistic response to the current situation in Singapore where you have thousands of foreign workers competing with the locals?  I have a quite few points to make on the issue, if I may elucidate them, please.

Can you outperform the competition?

1. A global job market vs a very local one

It is 2016, we have to accept the fact that the job market in this day and age has changed beyond recognition. 30 years ago, in 1986, it was far more rare for Singaporeans to work abroad and likewise, there were far fewer expatriates in Singapore back then. But in 2016, far more Singaporeans have worked abroad - be it for short term contracts or for much longer term employment; likewise, the number of expatriates and foreign workers in Singapore has increased exponentially. This is the reality you are faced with today: you can't just stick your head in the sand demand that we turn back the clock, to a time when life was simpler, when we didn't have so many foreigners in our midst. Going into denial isn't going to change the reality that we have to deal with before us - as the nature of our job markets have changed, so have the rules of engagement. You can't expect your competition to do things that may have a detrimental effect on your welfare: her somewhat childish reaction does tantamount to a primary school student running to her teacher saying, "teacher, he play cheat, not fair." Since when did that ever come into the equation? When different people from different countries come into the equation, you can't expect them all to play by your rules.

2. Employers are going to get what they pay for.

Such is the reality of the business world: work for less by all means but cheaper isn't always better. Let me give you a simple example, I have recently moved house (as my regular readers will know) and I am in the process of letting out my old flat in Soho. I had lived in it for 12 years and it needed some painting and decorating done before it met the estate agent's standards for letting. I collected some quotes for painters and decorators; in the end, I didn't go with the cheapest quote but I went with the guy who had the best references. Why? I wasn't confident about the guy with the cheapest quote - I would rather pay a bit more for someone to get the job right the first time. It is simple: it is false economy to hire someone who is willing to do the same job for less money as the quality of the work will not be the same: you get what you pay for. You pay peanuts, you hire monkeys. So if you do discover a company with poor HR practices and is in the habit of hiring monkeys, then it is your prerogative to say, "well they are such idiots, no I don't want to work for a company like that." In fact, any self-respecting adult shouldn't want to work for a company like that.

3. Compete on the basis of quality, outsmart your competition. 

Now this blogger thinks that foreigners shouldn't be allowed to undercut locals in the job market, but the reality of the job market is that you can't force employers to pay everyone the same rate. Rather, employers should be free to reward those who are performing well and pay them more; whilst paying those who contribute less accordingly. This is the very nature of the free market and you can't have the government fixing pay, particularly in the private sector. Thus in this context, if you want to earn more money, you have to become a better employee: you have to prove your worth to your employers and if you are dealing with clients, you have to go out of your way to make sure they are happy with your products and services. As someone who has worked many years in sales, I truly believe in allowing the free market to run the economy: may the best man win. As my ex-boss used to tell me, "you wanna earn more money? Simple, just sell more and you'll get more commission. You write your own paycheck here, you decide how much you earn." You can see why I have no patience for lazy Singaporeans who have this sense of entitlement.

4. Put yourself in your employer's shoes for a moment. 

Having run my own business, I know what it is like to look at profit margins and good grief, let me tell you just how hard it can be to make sure that the company does make money. You cannot realistically expect Singaporean employers to deal with the issue of whether or not Singaporean youths should be expected to be paid less or more: these companies have one aim, they are trying to make money. They are not charities which are there to provide young Singaporeans with a brighter future: rather, it is a symbiotic relationship, based on mutual benefit. Prove your worth to your employer and your employer will treat you well; fail to pull your weight however and don't expect any mercy from your boss. This then boils right down to meritocracy: what are you worth to your company? What are your contributions this month? And within that context, your nationality doesn't and shouldn't come into the equation at all.

Why should your boss pay you more? Give us some good reasons.

5. What can be done to help young Singaporeans then? 

Any kind of schemes to help young Singaporeans secure better jobs should come directly from the government and the first area that needs to be addressed is the bad education system in Singapore. Singaporeans are their own worst enemies when it comes to addressing problems in their own system: they get into a masturbation-style frenzy when they boast about how brilliant Singaporean students are when it comes to scoring straight-As, yet put these same straight-A Singaporeans in competition with more eager competitors from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines and the Singaporean is usually defeated; no, not just defeated, the Singaporean is usually vanquished and condemned to driving a taxi for the rest of his life, despite having done so brilliantly well at school. That is a pretty poor outcome. Now class, what is the moral of the story? What does this tell us about Singapore? Quite simply, that what Singaporean students study at school is pretty much useless when it comes to helping them secure any kind of meaningful paid employment as adults - hence the problem needs to be dealt with at source: revamp the entire primary and secondary school system- teach our kids something useful instead of bludgeoning them through the current flawed system.

6. Stop discriminating against people based on nationality.

It is quite vile to discriminate against anyone based on their nationality. Let me give you an example from my university days: we were playing a quiz for the students to get to know each other better, so we formed various teams and the quiz master would ask 30 questions on different topics. The team with the most right answers would win a price. Now one of the questions was this, "what song are the following lines taken from: like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I am getting out. I need both the title of the song and the group that sang it." I knew the answer instantly: The Drugs Don't Work by The Verve. One of the girls in my team looked surprised and she had assumed that I didn't really speak English well, never mind know one of the songs that she really liked because I am from Singapore. I felt quite insulted by her assumptions, like what - did she think that I grew up in a chopsticks factory, surrounded by terraced rice fields, practicing Kungfu by day and reading Li Bai's poetty at night whilst  not accessing any British culture at all?

I found the words of this blogger really quite insulting, she wrote: "They are earning a lot more here than they would at home due to our exchange rate . When they return, they will be very rich." Well, that is overly simplistic. I have two very good friends in Kuala Lumpur and they have a good life there: they both have good jobs and drive nice cars.  It is this assumption she makes that somehow, because Malaysians come from a poorer country, that Malaysians have less aspiration and are more content with a simpler life. It doesn't work like that: Malaysians, Vietnamese, Indonesians and Filipinos can be as driven and ambitious as Singaporeans. Mind you, it's not that all Singaporeans lack ambition: but as I look back at my VJC friends, some have done a lot with their lives, whilst others have done surprisingly little. What resulted in this difference? Why did some of my former classmates become multi-millionaire CEOs whilst others are content with a much simpler life? In short, there is no correlation between one's nationality and one's ambitions: if a Singaporean is just not ambitious enough to face the competition, then who can you blame but the individual?

7. Foreign expatriates in Singapore still pay Singapore prices

It is a complete fallacy to claim that these foreigners are taking advantage of the exchange rates and when they return back to their home countries, they will be very rich. That's completely untrue because when a Filipino or a Vietnamese man walks into an NTUC supermarket and does his grocery shopping, he would pay exactly the same prices as a Singaporean person buying the same groceries. When the Filipino or Vietnamese man takes the MRT, he pays the same price as the Singaporean next to him. You Singaporeans probably still live at home with your parents and not have to pay any rent, whilst our Filipino and Vietnamese friends have to spend a sizable portion of their monthly income on rent. For them to save any money at all, they have to either be spending so little money on food and leisure or they have to be commanding such huge salaries that they can still have some money to send home each month after spending on the bare necessities like food, transport and rent. Will they be that rich when return to their home countries? I don't think so - especially if they want to continue enjoying a standard of living on par with Singaporeans.

These cupcakes cost the same whether you're a local or an expat.

8. Some of these expatriates actually come from pretty rich families you know?

Again, this blogger makes a pretty awful assumption about people who come from poorer countries, that they must be all like the Filipino or Indonesian maids who are desperately poor in their home countries and are desperate to do any kind of work in Singapore. Go to any big Asian city like Jakarta, Manila, Colombo, Hanoi or Bangkok and you will see an emerging middle class. We're talking about folks who have good jobs, earn good money, live in big houses, drive nice cars and enjoy a standard of living as high if not higher than your average Singaporean. Indeed, many Thais, Indonesians, Vietnamese and Filipinos do aspire to that kind of middle class lifestyle - what makes you think that they would be somehow satisfied with returning to a standard of living that is much lower than what they have grown accustomed to in Singapore? In short, these people may come from poorer countries, but do not assume that they are lack the aspiration to become wealthy and middle class. And to be middle class even in Vietnam or Indonesia, you still need a lot of money - it is not a simple process of working in Singapore for a few years and then being able to retire on your savings in a small village. You can only do that if you are content with living in a small hut in the middle of nowhere - but you're just being racist if you assume that this is what the Asian foreign workers actually want. Heck, did it occur to you that many of them want to become CEOs and multi-millionaires too?

9. Who's gonna pay for the nice things in life you desire? 

This blogger wrote, "Singaporeans need more money to buy a house here, afford necessities and save up for retirement here"  Well, the fact that she could come up with something like that is just stupid. What makes you think that our Malaysian friends for example, would be satisfied with a little hut in a kampong? If they wanted to buy a nice condo in downtown KL, property there costs as much as Singapore. And these foreigners need to pay Singaporean prices for the same necessities as Singaporeans and as for retirement, we all have to save up for our own retirement. Did you think that foreign workers don't need to save up for their retirement too? Foreign workers have the same needs as Singaporeans - so you want the nice things in life, we all do. Who is going to pay for all those nice things you would like? Your parents? Your government? If you are not earning enough to afford the lovely condo you desire but are stuck on the waiting list for a HDB flat, then I hate to be the one to break this to you: you're earning too little because you didn't get a good job and you can't really blame foreigners for that. No, you need to take responsibility.

Who's going to pay for the nice things in life you desire?

10. Still not happy? Please leave, you know where Changi Airport is. 

At the end of the day, the unsatisfactory situation is what it is. Singapore has experienced so many changes in the last few decades and let me be the first to say that I'm not happy with what Singapore has become. Trying to hold the PAP to account for their stance on immigration is next to impossible, given how they had won the last election with a landslide victory. You can bitch and moan all you want on social media to try to be popular with other equally disgruntle Singaporeans, but at the end of the day, you have two choices: either learn how to deal with the challenges that lay before you in Singapore, or if you are really that unhappy, then please feel free to leave Singapore and go work elsewhere. The same way these foreigners have come to seek greener pastures in Singapore, you are more than welcome to go seek greener pastures abroad too. This is not North Korea, you are leave if you want. After all, nobody is forcing you to stay on in Singapore if you are really that unhappy with the situation.

Here's the ultimate answer to your problem.

But is leaving Singapore the answer? No, it isn't for a simple reason: even if you do manage to move abroad, then you're going to face competition everywhere you go. The real solution to the problem is to become so bloody good at what you do that you can easily outperform the rest of the field and are therefore not afraid of any competition. I remember this Penang Hay Mee 槟城虾面 (prawn noodles) hawker in Ang Mo Kio when I was a child - the queues at his hawker center stall were super long, but it was so worth the wait and his rich prawn broth was so incredibly good. Was he the only hawker in Ang Mo Kio selling Hay Mee? Of course not, this was a fairly common dish, popular in Singapore - yet his recipe was better than his competition and that was why the locals were happy to queue for 20, even 30 minutes just for a bowl of his wonderfully tasty Hae Mee. And get this: his Hay Mee was more expensive than what the other hawkers charged, but people didn't go there because he was cheap, they went there because it was so tasty and they were willing to pay for quality. There's a lot we can all learn from this hawker center Hay Mee uncle - don't be afraid of the competition, just make sure you're better than everyone else. And yes, it is really that simple.

Have you tasted Ang Mo Kio's best prawn noodles?

So there you go, that's my take on this issue. What do you think? What can younger Singaporeans do to face up to the intense competition in the local job market, with more and more foreigners arriving in Singapore each year? Have you found it hard to deal with this foreign competition? Do let me know what you think, please leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading. Aah damn, now I'm craving for some really authentic Penang Hay Mee. Oooh Hay Mee.