Was Normal Really Normal?

 

One of the biggest signs that things have returned to normal has been the return of the Singapore Formula One (F1), which the government has proudly reminded us is the world’s only street race to be held at night. The fact that F1 is back, means that the government can now return to its favourite activity – showing off to the world’s rich and famous. As an ordinary sap earning below the wage of intelligence (judged at $500,000 a month), normalcy is negotiating between the happy headlines of how all the five-star hotels are fully booked and praying that your regular bus to work has not one of the many disrupted by the holding of the race.

People of significance are creaming their jeans at the thought of returning to normal. Landlords are celebrating the return to the office, and the ability to cream off productive people. Food outlets are getting happy because there are crowds waiting outside to be fed. More importantly, the government has been able to do what it likes to do best – selling Singapore.

It's returned to reminding the locals that Singapore needs to be attractive to the best and brightest and has gone as far as to work out a new visa for the extra wealthy. Everyone in government seems to be slapping themselves on the back as headlines as to how Singapore has done things like become the world’s fifth richest city (only four other cities have more billionaires and centimillionaires) and how we have replaced Hong Kong as the third largest financial centre of the world.

The government’s point is that we need the world’s best and brightest if we’re going to have any form of a future, let alone a bright future. We are told that we need “foreign” money and talent in order for us to have great, well-paying jobs.

I am, for the record, not against foreign talent or money. The three greatest moments of my working life, came from foreigners. The Saudi Embassy and the Indian IT community were willing to give me, a small nobody the chance to do high level work, while native born Singaporeans wouldn’t look at me because I never worked for a big company based in either New York or London. Without our foreign arrivals, I would probably remain waiting tables and having to take orders from village idiots.

Like or not, Singapore is a small and vulnerable place. Our prosperity and even our basic survival depends on being open to the outside world. Border wall policies will simply not work here.

Having said all that, what is clear from this new found zeal to attract the world’s richest and brightest, is that we’ve failed to learn anything from the two-years of limited movement that Covid forced upon us. Sure, I get it that everyone wants to get back to making their pre-covid revenue but we wasted the two-years of limited movement because it gave us a chance to slow down, reflect and make the effort to restructure the economy in a more sustainable way. Instead of reflection, it’s been a rush to return to normal.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/foreign-talent-singapore-workers-expats-companies-one-pass-2962481

None of the bright sparks in government have asked if “normal was really normal” to begin with. Why is the government doubling on a policy that cost it a GRC in 2011 and another one in 2020? It’s as if the idea that the world’s wealthiest has become a religion rather than a carefully thought-out policy.

Let’s look at another “religion” disguised as political policy – low taxes. Talk to any “conservative” politician in the world, be they Republicans in the USA or Tories in the UK or even PAP politicians, and they’ll all tell you that low taxes are essential to prosperity because that’s what the world’s rich want and you need the world’s richest to create prosperity. How has this doctrine worked?

The UK’s latest Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng believes that its essential to cut taxes to get the UK humming again and a week ago, he produced a mini-budget that came up with the deepest tax cuts seen in several decades. The market reacted by sending the currency to historic lows and the Bank of England has had to intervene in the markets to prop up UK government bonds and the British government has just been rebuked by the world’s lender of last resorts, something usually reserved for “s*** hole” countries run by tin pot dictators instead of the world’s sixth largest economy.

 

This is what happens when you think economic policy as a religion.

Now, the economic markets have not reacted to Singapore’s new drive for the world’s richest the same way they’ve reacted to the British government’s tax cuts. However, its not wrong to ask if doubling down on a policy of going all out to bring in the world’s rich. How exactly does a huge number of billionaires camping out in my neighborhood help me?

In Singapore, it appears that the answer is not much. Billionaires are invited to buy very expensive property and that’s about it. We got very excited when Sir James Dyson bought the most expensive piece of property around. Did it create jobs? Did it give Singaporeans a chance to shine at something or another?

So, while it is important to be attractive to the world’s richest and best, we need to remember that the backbone of any economy is not with the one percent, who can go to where they’re treated best. Surely, it is more important to focus on ensuring that the 99 percent are capable of looking after themselves. Unless the government understands this, we’re going to find that we’re heading the way of the British Pound in a race to give things to the people who don’t need them.