Foreign Talents in Singapore

Dear Mr. Tan,

I refer to the Business Times article about "Foreign Talents in Singapore", 17 September.

While it may be true that Singapore's GDP growth rate has gone up notches, the question is who benefited from the higher growth rate? If you get paid more so that you can pay for the same food that cost more, use the same road that cost more to drive on, rent the same house that now cost you more to rent, ... then it is just inflation.

If the higher growth means you work harder to get higher pay so that you can buy more of something you don't need, eat more and then has to go swimming everyday to get rid of the calories, then the higher growth just translates to wastage.

If all said, people are happier than before then it is all right, but are they?

Heng Chee Meng