Friday, May 2, 2014

Grist To The Mill

Soylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction classic about the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, and a hot climate attributed to the greenhouse effect. Except for the dying ocean bit, we are all too familiar with the haze, congestion, infrastructure shortfalls, income gap, and the hot & humid climate of Singapore Inc.

Most of the population in the movie survives on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, whose newest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer marketed as containing "high-energy plankton". But even the oceans soon ran short of the nutritious plankton from which Soylent Green is supposedly made, and - spoiler alert! - the only conceivable supply of protein that matches the known production rate must be sourced from human remains.

Okay, we are not at that stage yet. But senior citizens are now asked to rejoin the work force, albeit at lower wages. Forget about your education levels, your extensive work experience, you are older, you should get less. Just as young men are roped in as cannon fodder for 2 years of national service, the seniors are to be deployed as grist to the mill of the economic machine.

"At age 65, we are not as strong as before... Rather than expect 'same job, same pay', why not consider suitable jobs, reasonable pay," is a cogent argument. Apparently 800 civil servants are now working beyond age 65, but we are not told what they are doing or how much they are paid. Surely they can't all be members of parliament drawing full allowance without having to show up at meet-the-people-sessions?

At least 3 2 ministers in the cabinet will hit 65 in the year 2017 (Lee Hsien Loong, Khaw Boon Wan, Vivian Balakrishnan were born in 1952) and 3 in 2019 (Teo Chee Hean, Lim Hng Kiang, Lim Swee Say). Will they still be expecting 'same job, same pay'? Can't wait to see how the wayang turns out.

24 comments:

  1. Soylent Green just spoilt my lunch.
    Recycling an old and dead PAP Minister into a biscuit.
    And then eating him for lunch.
    And then shitting him out afterwards.

    Pui! Pui! Pui!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In such a scenario, the daft 60% is harvested to feed the other 40% whilst the old and dead PAP ministers will be recycled for the other PAPs serving time in Changi hotel.

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  2. They will simply say that they are no longer drawing any salary.. but they have a very generous pension, or getting honorariums for speaking, retainers, dividends... each method pays more than an ordinary person who has grown old and unwanted.
    They are set for life.. ( includes the family too )

    This is what motivates & attracts people to politics... and it includes the opposition camps.

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    1. /// This is what motivates & attracts people to politics. ///

      maybe you really mean: "This is what motivates & attracts people to PAP" ?

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    2. in the past 50 years no one became wealthy by being in the opposition camps, in fact many became bankrupt or have to exit as refugees.so
      to even things out, the PAP buggers should be rendered the opposition and given the same bitter medicine.

      Delete
  3. Our ministers perform Same job, but MORE PAY.

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  4. Get Very Real5/02/2014 2:07 PM

    Did you say "we are not there yet"?

    http://www.vice.com/read/rob-rhinehart-interview-soylent-never-eat-again

    WElcome to the future! Population's resources solved.

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  5. Give me an emeritus or mentor title, drawing pay @15k a month at 90yo, I can simply just pay a ghostwriter $7k a month to seemingly produce "productivity", I still have chum change for R&R leh....sure, why not?! 100yo also no problem , tiok bo?

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  6. //Looking at the Nordic countries and more advanced countries where they’ve already moved beyond 65, I think it is only a matter of time for Singapore to also move beyond 65,” Stephen Lee //

    Funny how they are so quick to take on examples from Nordic country when it comes to working retirement age, but when it comes to social welfare and living wages they are silent. How exactly do they define "Reasonable' wage?
    Only in SG, when retirees talk about RnR, is not about Rest and Relax, but Retirement and Reemployment. World class indeed.

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    Replies
    1. This reminded me of the push to follow Japanese in the 80s. They kept saying we must learn to work like Japanese but never mention about companies also must follow Japanese welfare and pay. PAP is clever. Always one sided.

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    2. In that case, they should start their retirement & re-employment earlier at 45yo. Coz this is the age where most of our experienced, capable and productive PMETs get replaced, retired but no reemployment (welll..if you count taxi driving, insurance and property agents as a 'reasonable' jobs and wages lah). Yet, they are happy to ignore this group of growing segment .

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  7. Tattler
    vivian was born in 1961

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    Replies
    1. next thing to check is whether vivian was delivered in 1961 at some hawker centre, foodcourt or restaurant,...monsoon drain even. ^_^

      Delete
  8. The PAP are royalty - rules for the serfs don't apply to them.

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  9. People who are designing their life around getting more, and try to get those moments closer and closer enough, you won't notice the space in between. After dinner,what's for dessert, after dessert let's have coffee, then let's go for a movie, let's take an ice cream, then let's take a walk.. let's go home, let's see what is in the fridge...it goes on and on...god forbids if there is such a space.

    Why stop at 65? Why not just announce 91 yo and beyond? The word 'Pioneers' these days are the latest positive fad as we inch closer to 50th feastival. Senior citizens will be replaced with 'tsunami' when all is said and done and behind closed door.

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  10. Jabba the Hutt was different, the rules it set for Tatooine didn't apply to itself. Who wants to be an elite and still obey rules? Did their sons go to NS? How did farmer ex MPs ended up owning a few GCBs? If you want to understand how they think, start by asking why old fart thought (past tense used deliberately in advance, having carefully studied that open-mouth emaciated photo with the fat despotic royal couple) so highly of Deng? because Deng gave him the go-ahead to enrich his cronies by proclaiming that "for China to get rich, a few must first get very rich". Ever since, local elites have not looked back, blatantly sticking the middle finger in front of the world, taking what they consider is theirs. Whether 60% gave them mandate is moot when you have the ISA and control the MSM,

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  11. Another great from MIW. Give the members of the senior community something to shoot for—a target of behavior just enough out of reach that they have to stretch to attain it (Do as you would be done by, for example).

    Well, THAT ought to open up a can of philosophical worms.

    All of this is grist for the fictional mill. And fiction, I remind myself daily, is the way we make reality behave by pretending to look the other way.

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  12. Stephen King: "fiction is the truth inside the lie". The lie is spun so reasonably that the sheeple, never allowed the chance to use their brains from primary one (some say from MoE-run childcare centres), end up taking it for the truth. Actually, it is very simple: Eric Blair call it doublespeak in 1984. Never trust a politician, cut out the bs, ask for the cash, like the old lady when briefed about Pioneer gen goodies.

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  13. These politicians are hypocrites, as the rules generally do not apply to them when they reach retirement age, and some even get promoted to higher titles doing less work but being paid more.

    Why can't they give job priority to Singaporean first and shorten NS from 2 to 1 year and maybe unemployment situation can be alleviated and no need to increase retirement age to beyond age 65.

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  14. SG Inc becomes Soylent Green? Soon fiction becomes fact. Minister Cow says quality of life can be better with better planning. Right, work until die is better quality of life. The next retirement age is probably 75 for the peasants. Would you mind retiring at 75 if you earn a million buckaroos a year?

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  15. what else is new in Lee's message.

    another round of "mayday mayday, the competitors (that I let in massively) are eating your lunch, dinner and supper!!

    and from the unionists? "mayday mayday, less job less pay, because the bosses say so. don't shoot the messenger leh"

    All that rah rah about the suckcess of tripartite, better the senior citizens go check if their cpf has dried up.

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  16. Are there any unionists in Spore in the true sense of the word? They cunt or don't even dare to demand a min wage for our lowest rank of workers and then our PM keep talking cock for nothing every Labour Day.

    Better go & shoot aeroplane.

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  17. The retarded PM is preaching and depressing wages again. The irony of using that as message on Labour Day goes to show how thick-skin and condescending he was. He broke the final straw that deserve several shoves into his ass, by workers, on election day.

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  18. The garmen just acknowledged, after vehement protests, that Singapore is among the costliest cities in the world, vs Paris, HK, Shanghai, London and NY! But how to bring costs down? Used to be tourists find electronic goods bargain even at Sim Lim. But now rental costs are sky high even in HDB-zone malls because of the "asset-enhanced" property bubble. Towkay's profits also cannot fall (only if you are cronies like Mah's GSH which distribute apples) or no one will buy Merc and Ferraris or splurge at casinos. So how? Employees salaries must fall lor! Start with the 65+, then the OL and white collar PMETs. Blue collar already replaced by EP holders. See, the starting point is that some "sacred cows" policies like property prices or crony profits cannot be touched. They end up each time coming back to squeeze the same old stone (no punt intended). Same for CPF, medishiled etc - all the insurance companies (cronies), banks and fund managers (THL, GIC, hedge funds incentivised to shift from HK to red dot by govt handing them huge sums of our CPF funds to "manage" - all these scared cow policies cannot be touched. Same with transport - SMRT SBS etc must be profitable. So who to squeeze? You the taxpayers la! Its all very simple. Change the incentives, destroy the vested interests, your problems will solve themselves.

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