this is no deep and uber-technical macroeconomic analysis, just the rants of a concerned and increasingly disillusioned normal Singaporean. i refer to the 2011 UBS Report, which of course our Finance Minster has claimed is pure bollocks, pulled out of UBS’ asses out of nowhere to satisfy their unique Singapore-bashing agenda.
Singapore is 10th most expensive city in world, but with only 42nd highest wages. all of the 18 most expensive cities in the world have wage levels amongst the top 24, with exception of Singapore of course. therefore, this leads us to only have the 47th best purchasing power in the world, below the likes of Moscow, Johannesburg, and comparable to KL & Buenos Aires.
the graph at the bottom of the page makes it clearer: our net wage index is about 30/100 (y-axis); our price index is about 90/100 (x-axis). thus, amongst countries in the “lower half purchasing power”, you can see Singapore clearly being the most expensive place to live in.
so if you’re an average person with average skills earning an average wage and buying average things, you can theoretically only afford half the amount things in Singapore (40.7) compared to obviously more awesome cities like London (84.9), Berlin (88.9). Chicago (96.3), New York (100) and Zurich (110.5). basically all the cities above 81.2 under “purchasing power”
combine the double whammy of high cost of living and low wages with unchecked inward immigration and what we have is a situation where housing, transport, cars & several other things dependent on our infrastructure keeping up with the increased population get more expensive because we can’t cater to the population explosion. yet at the same time, wages for the middle to lower-middle income groups (some may claim even more people are affected) are particularly depressed due to lack of minimum wage and crazy influx of low-wage workers from China and South Asia.
in conclusion, we are all fucked.*
*unless you are a minister
