The future is bleak: Rising Prices and Widening Income Gap

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced on Tuesday that Singapore’s economic growth is expected to slow to 4 to 6 percent in 2008. So what is in place for us? The weakening economy, rising costs in goods and services and an ever widening income gap between the rich and poor are together constructing a bleak future. As the article written by Wolfgang Reuters on Spiegel Online International noted: “It inevitably brings higher unemployment, a decline in government revenues and growing poverty.”

Our country is becoming more and more globalised but the onslaught of globalisation has caused many who are older, unemployed, less educated and less privileged to become the state’s rising disenchanted in an environment of rising costs and widening income gap.

Goods and services are getting more and more expensive. Every now and then, we hear news about increased prices of products. Online media has also aggregated list of price increases. This apparently high inflation which our government has constantly denied always has the most drastic impact on people with lower incomes, who need to spend a larger percentage of their disposable income on ordinary consumer goods than high earners. In addition, prices of oil have also hit record high levels. When oil prices go up, everything else will follow. As if coping with all these hikes is not bad enough, to rub salt into the wound, the government hiked the GST from 5% to 7% since July this year. Till now I still do not see how the GST hike could have benefited the poor as what they have claimed.

As Singapore becomes more affluent with record number of millionaires, poverty is still not something of the past. As much as our leaders try to convince us that Singapore does not have beggars, we still see them roaming the streets. Many seemed to have “evolved” into empty can and used cardboard collectors for resale back to manufacturers to earn mere pittance.

Some people have raised the inequality flag. Mr Brown, for one, has written an article “S’poreans are fed, up with progress!” for Today newspaper sometime ago to illustrate the whole issue. Martyn See, who is another, created a very touching short film named “Nation Builders” and brought out the harsh reality of how the poor eke out a living in our cosmopolitan society.

We may have lived in illusion, dreamed that we live in a wonderland, but the worst is yet to come: When the economic crisis strikes, more Singaporeans will join the league of poor and bankrupted. Let us hope you and I will not be the unfortunate ones.

Other related articles:

A bane for middle-class: On Inflation and recent Price Hikes

Can You Survive On $1 A Day? Support The World Food Day. Make Poverty History

It is unimaginable in Singapore that anyone can possibly survive on $1 for a day as a meal at the foodcourt does not come cheaper than $3 and a bus ride from home to work place would have cost more than $1. But according to statistics, it is a fact that almost 1 billion live in poverty, with a daily income of less than $1. Even in a country where the living standards are low, I think it is still not possible to maintain basic needs such as adequate daily nutritional intake, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, a livelihood that can support survival, that can give a chance for a child to make his or her way through school, access to essential health services in a health emergency or a disease spell.

When those conditions are not met, I think that is considered as extreme poverty. We always talk about education being one of the most effective keys to overcome poverty but for the poorest, education is more like a luxury. Parents cannot afford books, uniforms, stationery etc for their children whose ability to succeed at studies might be hindered by poor living conditions and extreme hunger.

In one of the documentaries I have watched, it reported that 1 in 5 people in the world cannot read or write at all. They do not even know anything outside their hometown or the name of their country’s president. All their efforts are focused on the daily struggle to find food to survive. No overseas holiday trips. No entertainment like movies and clubbings. No McDonald’s(Their children probably do not even know the restaurant exisited). No TV. No tuition, no toys, no computer games for the children like what we have here in Singapore.

In my opinion, poverty and the lack of education together forms a vicious cycle where the poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty. Those caught in the cycle tend to remain poor throughout their life.

But do we even need to bother about how others are suffering outside the cosy homes of ours? Our religions have taught us a lot about empathy for fellow human beings and it is time to put our learnings in humanitarianism in practice. Support The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as it celebrates World Food Day on 16 Oct 2007. Themed “The Right to Food”, the organisation aims to bring awareness of the importance of human rights in eradicating hunger and poverty and hastening and deepening the sustainable development process. Back at home, Singapore is also having an event "Stand Up and Speak Out" to demand world leaders to keep their promises to end extreme poverty.

Any little amount of donation can make a difference. I have made my donation to the World Food Programme. Have you?