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#Singaporeans in #Bangkok #Thailand can't fly home to vote #SGElection #GE2020 But they're gathered in a Sporean-owned pub & monitoring the results on @ChannelNewsAsia. More than 4,000 Singaporeans based in Thailand. 
#Singaporeans in #Bangkok #Thailand monitoring #GE2020 #GE2020SG results on @ChannelNewsAsia with local treats & special drinks in national flag colours. Many can't/didn't return home to vote due to #quarantine requirements. Thailand not a designated overseas polling station
#Singapore organizer of #GE2020 #GE2020SG watch party in #Bangkok #Thailand enabled Singaporeans to vote for their local food choice as they can't go home to cast their ballots for elections. The 2 winning dishes of 5 choices like chicken curry, nasi lemak? Laksa & Char Kuay Teow
One of the issues I have repeatedly raised in my campaign speeches this #GE2020SG has been the problem of stagnant productivity. I see poor productivity growth as the most critical economic challenge that the country will confront in the decades ahead. Why is this so important?
Because in the long run, the only way to ensure sustainable growth in our output and incomes per capita is through improvements in productivity. But because it is a technical subject, people tend to shy away from discussions about the matter. I think that this is a mistake.
It's useful to start with some definitions. The simplest definition of productivity is output per worker. So if I can make two hammers in an hour, and my colleague only makes one, I am twice as productive my coworker. All else equal, I should be paid twice as much in wages.
Economists define 3 main forms of unemployment: frictional (what happens when you move btw jobs); structural (when you lose your job because your industry is now defunct); and cyclical (when you’re fired because of a recession). In Singapore, the latter two are more relevant.
The latter 2 are the forms that are targeted by a redundancy insurance (RI) scheme, which seeks to cushion the effects of involuntary job loss. RI works via risk pooling: with job displacements (and RI payouts) occurring at different times, the common cash pool remains liquid.
In addition to income replacement (which is often partial, to retain the incentive for job seeking, and also for financial sustainability), RI can reduce the psychic sense of insecurity that results from losing one’s job (which can also promote entrepreneurial risk taking).
One of the main policy positions the #workersparty is advancing this #ge2020sg is an objection to a GST hike, of 7 to 9 percent. It’s worth understanding why such a move would be an error, both in the shorter and longer run.
In the near term, a GST increase amounts to contractionary fiscal policy. If we believe that this could be a prolonged recession, a premature tightening of macro policy would short-circuit a nascent rebound, and the shock may even send the economy back into recession.
This largely describes the case of Japan, which has remained in a low-growth regime, and often fell into recession each time it either attempted to (or actually did) increase its consumption tax, ever since 1997. Consumption tax hikes may have well prolonged its lost decade(s).
One of the policies that the #workersparty is advancing this #ge2020sg is the policy of a minimum wage. Many who are unfamiliar with this concept—or who only encounter this idea in intro econ texts—tend to reject it as an unnecessary gov intervention that would raise unemployment
I used to think that way. But since the work of Card-Krueger in the 1990s, economists’ understanding of the effects have evolved. Using modern econometrics, paper after paper has shown little to no employment losses from the intro of min wages & improvements in worker welfare
Of course, it would be absurd to argue that capacity to raise wages above prevailing levels is boundless. But real wage growth in Singapore over the past decade (1.9%) was outrun by real GDP growth over the same period (4.5%), meaning that there is slack for greater labor share
