Hey, I'm not trying to pick fights here too and I'm not offended easily so it's good to hear your views or those of the locals. Like I said in an earlier post on here - I like your posts and insight as you seem to speak candidly and provide a good insight on the ground and from a local perspective. I just like to be frank and curious at the same time, but if it's misunderstood as anything else, I'll be the first to apologise. I'm certainly not labeling anyone, but I just honestly can't see what is driving half the stuff going on at the moment and causing the wave of hysteria amongst the locals. At lunch today two guys were talking about foreigners driving up property and commodity prices, they seem to home in on me like a magnet or maybe I have selective hearing!!Wind In My Hair wrote:Finally, a foreign perspective that acknowledges the economic realities and makes sense to me, and admitting for the first time that foreigners do have some impact on housing prices here. I was starting to feel sorry for the PAP, sandwiched between unreasonable Singaporeans who think that kicking foreigners out will solve all problems, and unreasonable foreigners who think that shouting down local greed will solve all problems.BillyB wrote:And the housing market gains are a natural result of
1. a growing economy
2. positive sentiment,
3. increases in foreign workers which has resulted in increased need for rentals meaning yields increase thus attracting more people into housing and buying second places for investment,
4. foreigners wanting something to show for their money and getting frustrated with high rentals compared to their home countries,
5. low interest rates,
6. some speculation and market making.
If there is a bubble, it will unlikely pop, more rather deflate slowly and get pumped back up in the short-term as there aren't masses of debt attached property that would break the market, because a high % are cash transactions, and the Singaporean banks have a far greater understanding of risk and are less greedy than their Western counterparts when it comes to lending.
BillyB, a lot of the resentment shouldn't be taken personally. We're just seeing the uglier side of human nature where it's easier to blame our troubles on others. I don't like this zenophobia, and personally believe that the competition is good for us in the long run.BillyB wrote:But just what do the foreigners do over here that offends the locals so much? Take the manual jobs (that the locals won't take)needed to keep the economy buoyant by working in construction, pay their taxes fully and on time thus contributing economically, immigration is strictly controlled here - you aren't getting all sorts smuggled in on the back of lorries who scrounge off the state and carve out a nice living at the expense of tax payers plus if they were to cause trouble they would be pretty much kicked out straight away as SG has an almost zero tolerance policy. So just what is the issue? Because we use your transport system, buy your food, dare to sit in the same restaurants, date Asian women? I am really struggling to comprehend the argument. I'll save going down the racist and jealousy routes but I am seriously struggling to come up with alternatives.
Having said that, foreigners sometimes make it difficult to love them. I'm one of the more open-minded locals I know, yet being on this forum sometimes makes me wonder why we open our borders and our arms to people who seem to hold Singaporeans in such low regard that 'contempt' is the closest word I can think of to describe this attitude. It's the same "I-know-better-than-you-fools" arrogance that the PAP has displayed that lost them so many votes this time.
Not picking a fight here, but you did ask the question. And I'm not saying all foreigners are like this, just like not all Singaporeans resent foreigners. But there are enough zealots on both sides to make the integration challenging.
But I agree in that society will always be a concoction of viewpoints, just that sometimes common sense can be overruled by other motives and thats when distortion starts and can snowball out of control.