Mad Chase for 'Toilet Paper' Certs

Mad chase for paper is especially chronic in confucian centric societies. In effort to shore up its dwindling support among exasperated parents, s'pore's ruling incumbent party announced 4th & 5th universites for this tiny island.

Many working sinkies with degrees already know their paper certs have degenerated into toilet paper when the floodgates are opened widely & workers with unknown paper certs(incl. Drs) from 3rd world countries can get hired & displaced locals.

Situation in S Korea provides a glimpse for what's down the path for S'pore.- Young South Korean graduates face jobless woes

"I've worked really hard to get all these qualifications, though... the thing is, there are too many people like me & too few jobs for us. If I have children, I'll never press them to go to college/Uni like my parents did. I'll tell them to find their real passion first instead of just following the pack."-23 year old Korean grad

Similar fate already happening & will continue in S'pore. Many youngsters being young have no idea of what they want. Coupled with pressure from parents & the herd, many just go along blindly. In paper-crazed societies many parents want their kids to be Drs/Lawyers so as to have 'face'- Watch Rich Son Poor Son

"Excessive 'education inflation' of our country is causing so many problems socially & economically" -Korean President Lee Myung-Bak

President Lee even proposed setting a hiring quota at government bodies for high-school graduates -- a measure intended to encourage more teenagers to seek work after school ends, instead of heading straight for college with no clear goal.

• Overall unemployment rate is low at around 3%, but rate for those aged 25-29 is more than twice as high.
• In the 2nd quarter, unemployed college or university graduates -- estimated to total 373,000 -- outnumbered jobless high-school graduates for the first time in more than 10 years.
• Even at Seoul National University, nearly 30% of its Ph.D holders were jobless in 2011 compared to about 15% 2 years earlier.
• Korean labour ministry warned of shortage of 500,000 jobs for college or university graduates by 2020 & an oversupply of 320,000 jobs available for high-school graduates.

Given the dismay statistic, one has to question the ROI (return on investment). What's the returns after getting into a pile of debts & then facing a bleak prospects upon graduation? Simple issue of supply & demand. With oversupply the wages of many degree holders are definitely downwards.

Economist Chang Ha Joon sums it up best:

• Even subjects like maths or science which are important for raising productivity, are not relevant for most workers - investment bankers do not need biology or fashion desginers maths in order to be good at what they do.
• A higher proportion of knowledge becomes embodied in machines. eg. shop assistants do not even need to know how to add- a skill that their counterparts in earlier times must need. Technicians at small electronics shop of poor countries can fix more things than individual workers at Samsung or Sony.
• Degree inflation has become like a theatre in which some people decided to stand to get a better view, prompting others behind them to stand. Once enough people stand, everyone has to stand, which means that no one is getting a beter view, while everyone has become more uncomfortable.

Thomas Stanley wrote in his book 'The Millionaire Mind':

• If you love what you are doing, your productivity will be high & your specific form of creative genius will emerge.
• Even analytically intelligent people often select vocations that are filled with competitors & discover that they don't love their careers. Even if they are genius, it's hard to win a competitive economic battle if your heart & emotions are not completely dedicated to victory.

4th & 5th universities are a cashcow for the govt & the govt-owned banks. Sinkies are already heading for extinction with pathetic fertility rate. More debts on the smaller future young generations will speed up the 'sinking of the ship'.

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Higher Share of Sinkies Likely to Leave Current Job Within 2 Years

2012 Towers Watson Global Workforce Study on attitudes of Singaporean employers & workers has thrown up these findings:

• 34% wanted to leave their current employers within next 2 years, higher than global average of 28%.
• 54% of respondents from S'pore believed have to join another organisation in order to advance to a job at a higher level.
• 30% of respondents feel senior management is doing a poor job in grooming future leaders.
• Middle managers were in the worst shape, with lowest levels of engagement & willingness to stay.
• 39% of respondents feel senior management shows interest in their well being.
• 32% felt they were paid fairly compared to people in other companies who held similar jobs.
• Proportion of S'pore employees who believed they are paid fairly compared to peers in other companies is lower than global average.
• On retirement benefits, just 20% agree their retirement benefits are being met compared to global average of 46%
• Only 39% felt that workplace health care & wellness programmes meet their needs.

Nothing surprising about the results as i've written about Gallup's Survey Showing Sinkie Workforce Among Worst Disengaged in World.

Workplace healthcare & wellness programmes? People are already spending bulk of waking hours at work. Why spend more around co-workers & at workplace? I'll rather spend the time alone or with friends outside of workplace.

Middle managers are like hamburgers-sandwiched between senior management & their subordinates. Many got their manager status through years of work or simply of their toilet paper 'degrees'. Manager doesn't mean they can manage people well. Unfortunately in status conscious S'pore, many sinkies desire to be manager in order to have 'face'. Those fallen into this trap are slaves to that 'mgr' title to supply them with self-esteem.

Related read:
- 98% of S'pore Workers Are 'Bochup' aka Disengaged in 2010

Kiasuism Being Reaffirmed Again in Independent Survey

I wrote about economist Graeme Maxton who has lived in S'pore describing S'pore as a toxic place to live due to kiasuism.

Nothing has changed as a recent survey- S'poreans see society as kiasu, competitive, self-centred shows:

Singapore residents were asked what values & behaviours described Singapore today.
Besides being "kiasu", Singapore was seen to be:

• competitive
• self-centred
• defined by material needs
•  "kiasi', a term which literally means being afraid of death.

Study polled 2,000 Singapore residents & Permanent Residents representing different gender, ages & living in different housing types.

Certain amount of competitiveness is healthy but overdose is toxic. Self-centered & defined by material needs are natural offshoots of kiasuism.

Being scared of losing out:

• people are more concerned about themselves
• people consume consume consume, buy buy buy in attempt to win through material needs arena.

Respondents were also asked what values & behaviours best described themselves. And these were:

• family
• friendship
• health
• happiness
• being caring.

I find it laughable. Gaining respect of others through material needs(Keeping up with the joneses) together with kiasuism & self-centered. Those values seem incompatible with friendship & being caring.

when asked what residents desired in Singapore society, the top 5 answers that came up were:

• affordable housing
• caring for the elderly
• effective health care
• caring for the disadvantaged
• compassion.

These 5 values are what the ruling regime has neglected. Many sinkies know they are being screwed. Let's face it, life is not all smooth sailing. Even professional atheletes like Lee Chong Wei & Jeremy Lin suffer injuries & disadvantaged. There's ups & downs.

Caring for elderly? Many sinkies already know of the sorry plight awaiting us. Tourists & us can look at the fabulous marketing job the current ruling party is doing by the way it is treating the elderly who helped built S'pore in the early days.

Sinkies can also see how the incumbent ruling party treats Tan Howe Liang, S'pore 1st olympic medalist with 'compassion'. Another fantastic marketing effort to sinkies.

High Food Prices Will Force Many Elderly Sinkies Sell Homes to Buy Food

World must brace for higher food prices. Climate change has already brought about more natural calamities & intensity of storms.

Poor harvest from climate change = Higher Food Prices
+
End of cheap oil era = Higher Food Prices
+
7B+ population
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Result: Higher & Higher & Higher Food Prices= Less income for other stuff.

In case you are wondering what does cheap oil got to do with food, look at the harvester picture- it runs on oil. Oil are also used to make fertilizers & pesticides. Oil is used to transport food especially to faraway places.

S'pore's current ruling party's myth of monetising their homes as retirement income will have devastating consequences for the 30% elderly sinkies by 2030. Much of population already strained under high cost of living with depressed wages. By 2030 many of those elderly would be forced to sell their homes just to put food in their mouths.

CPF (Central Provident Fund) as the retirement fund is now known are used to service mortgages. If it is used to pay mortgages then it defeats the purpose of being a retirement fund. By 2030, as prices collapse due to massive selling by the aged, it would be known as CPF (Cheat Peasants Fund).

Earth getting sicker & sicker.
In 2012 as per poor harvest reported
By 2030, what do you think?