The Economics of Employing Foreigners versus Locals

I used to teach Economics, and wrote this in response to a student who questioned Singapore bosses' treatment of our foreign workers.

If the boss houses them and pays them the way they would pay a Singaporean, then the bosses, well, they would rather pay a Singaporean.

It is basic demand and supply, the very same thing I told a Chinese reporter (back when I was in Shanghai) who demanded to know why I was paid so highly compared to a Chinese principal. I told her the same thing - if the boss could get a lower paid Chinese to do the same thing I did, they would. I got paid and treated that way because the boss needed my value.

In the same way, the day when the boss no longer needs the "value" those exploited workers give (said value in this case being their low wages and exploit-ability), a Singaporean would then take up the position.

Or perhaps, one day, when the law mandates that the boss needs to treat them the same way a Singaporean would be treated, the boss would do his sums and decide to forgo the hassle and hire a Singaporean instead.

When that day comes I am not too sure if I should rejoice for that one Singaporean who gets that job, or for that 2-3 foreigners who no longer have that job they are being exploited for.

I learnt one thing when I was a Principal and a GM, then a President (CEO), all senior management roles. I learnt that it is our exploitable value that makes us worth our weight in gold to a prospective employer. Once we no longer have an exploitable value, the world of capitalism and economics would simply put us aside - and we will find that we cannot even be exploited like those workers are. In other words, we become jobless.

There are always two sides to a coin, and sometimes one side is really disgusting and awful to our basic sense of humanity, but it is a side that is unfortunately very, very in-our-face true and visible. Perhaps we may have to wait till the day our Lord returns, before we can see a more Utopian world that we want to see.