State media crowed about Singapore being a “millionaire country”
September 19th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
“Welcome to millionaire country” – screamed the headlines of the Business Times, owned by the only printing press in Singapore, SPH. (read article here)
A foreigner unfamiliar with Singapore may be misled into believing that it is really a rich, prosperous and booming city full of millionaires.
According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 8.5 per cent of Singapore households had more than US$1 million in assets under management (AUM) in 2008.
Singapore had the highest concentration of millionaires followed by Switzerland and Kuwait.
That’s all the report said. It did not tell us the nationalities of the Singapore millionaires or the number of citizens in the group.
There may be more foreigners than Singaporeans in the group due to the government’s efforts to promote private banking in Singapore and to lure rich foreigners to park their money here during the last few years.
It tells us nothing about the wealth of the ordinary citizen in the streets which is becoming fast eroded by a combination of inflation and stagnating pay.
More importantly, there was no mention of the widening income gap between the rich and the poor which is on the rise for the last decade except for 2008 when there is a slight drop in the Gini Coefficient due to the global economic turmoil wiping out the fortune of the rich.
Furthermore, the report is on the number of households with more than US$1 million in assets and not the number of individuals with a cash worth of more than US$1 million (excluding fixed assets like properties) and therefore the headlines is not only misleading, but factually inaccurate as well.
The state media should spend more energy and efforts to reflect the actual reality on the ground rather than spinning half-baked ‘feel-good’ hogwash like this to hoodwink the general public in order to make the government look good.
The duty of the incumbent government is not to increase the number of millionaires in the country, but to raise the standard of living of every Singaporean, especially the poor and needy.
It is always easy to invite rich foreigners to invest in Singapore to artificially boost the number of millionaires as well as the economic indicators like the GDP, but it tells us nothing on the plight of ordinary Singaporeans who are becoming increasingly squeezed by the government’s policies in recent years.
Posted in Editorial
They dropped a word in between. millionaire minister country.
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absolutely. They might as well add the sub header that this millionaire country is also runned by millionaire ministers!!
that would make the case even stronger.
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MILLIONAIRE COUNTRY,
AND 9 in 10 S’poreans do not feel well prepared for retirement
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CNA
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
9 in 10 S’poreans do not feel well prepared for retirement
SINGAPORE: Ninety-one per cent of Singaporeans do not feel well-prepared for retirement compared to the global average of 87 per cent, according to an annual report by Oxford University’s Institute of Ageing on Wednesday.
It is suggested that the low level of preparedness is linked to the lack of access to financial advice. Although Singapore has a wide range of retirement products available, the report said more could be done to educate families to plan for the long term.
One of the key solutions for Singapore is to keep older workers employed, and researchers said the country is doing well in that area.
Dr George Leeson, deputy director, Oxford Institute of Ageing, said: “Governments need to help employers, employers need to help employees, and trade unions need to play a role.
“Singapore is probably ahead of its field in the region and even globally because there is such a high level of awareness and that is the prerequisite for addressing the issues of an ageing population.”
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Honestly, i find it extremely insulting and distasteful.
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The rich get richer; the poor get poorer.
It’s called globalization in PAP-speak, but economic mismanagement seems to be more to the point.
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Singapore had the highest concentration of millionaires in Parliament.
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Another clear sign that ELECTION is around the corner, so all the wayang about how tokong the gahment is and how Sinkapore sibei CAN.
Sinkaporeans will fall for it again time after time after time.
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If election is around the corner, all opposition supporters need to do their part to help counter PAP’s propaganda and also help to support our opposition financially and psychologically.
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[...] Wind: In millionaire-rich Singapore, majority income below national average – The Temasek Review: State media crowed about Singapore being a “millionaire country” – Mathia Lee: Meritocracy, as we would like [...]
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Self-serving, crude, in extremely bad taste but totally in
character.
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