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Minimum wage, vampires, and leeches. (thread on yesterday& #39;s parliament debate)
1/ Important statistics from parliament. In Singapore 100,000 workers are paid below $1300 per month. Of this, 56,000 earn less than $1300 even with Workfare disbursements and CPF employer contributions. Of the 56,000, 32,000 are full-time (1.7% of local workforce).
2/ The leader of the opposition (LO) asked PAP MP cum-Timbre owner if he is willing to pay his full-time employees at least $1300.
3/ PAP MP-Timbre owner& #39;s answer was basically no- he would not pay his workers at least $1300. His responsibility as a business owner is to the whole company and not to any specific group of employees. It must be profitable and scalable.
4/ In other words, this business owner MP is saying that he has no qualms about his profit model relying on full-time workers being paid less than $1300 a month.
5/ Should one be allowed to own a business at all if they claim they can only pay their full-time workers starvation wages?
6/While WP& #39;s min wage may be a step forward I am yet to be convinced. Restricting minimum wage to only locals while relying on a large population of migrant workers will continue to at best uphold, and at worst worsen MW exploitation. Capital still has bodies to leech off from.
7/Business-owner MP& #39;s words reminded me of this quote from a scholar critiquing liberal political economy:
"Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
"Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
8/ How abt- minimum wage regardless of nationality, indepndnt labour unions for collective bargaining based on industry, and workplace democracies to pave the way for profit-sharing business models. There should be a limit to how much blood capital can suck from labour
Btw, don& #39;t take my word for it. Watch this segment of the debate here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3966745706675316&id=149672065049385">https://m.facebook.com/story.php...
