YOURSAY ‘EPF said 80 percent of workers have savings below the poverty line.’
M'sia income gap lower than Singapore, Japan
Swipenter: This is a classic case of indulging in self-delusion and using averages and statistics to fool and manufacture a ‘feel good’ factor for the ignorant.
The real issue here is the harsh reality of how to manage and cope with our high cost of living in relation to our income and earning power.
Eyespye: A lower income inequality tells us very little if we don't look at gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
And I'd like Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim to compare our GDP per capita and Singapore's.
While inequality might be lower in Malaysia than in Singapore, that only means more of us Malaysians are equally poor.
Sabahan: Why do we have deputy ministers like Razali, who gave incomplete statistics with the possible intention of misleading Parliament?
The less-educated MPs will think that this lower income gap is good, but as Eyespye said, it is absolutely meaningless without including the actual income.
Jaycee: Once we were on par with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Now we are pleased because our income index is better than Indonesia and Thailand. This is truly a race to the bottom.
Our Right: Please compare our own now and 10 years ago as well as against the neighbouring country in the south. You will see others are progressing but we are regressing.
Fair Play: What is left unsaid is that Malaysia is a low-income country when compared with Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Of course, when a nation is classified under such a category, the gap between the poor and the rich cannot be used as a benchmark when comparing with richer nations. Such a comparison would only lead to self-delusion.
Ckl0001: Recently, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) reported that 80 percent of our workers have savings below the poverty line.
This means that most Malaysians do not earn enough and do not have much money to spend on retirement.
What is this talk about income gap differences between nations? Do we have the per capital income of Japan and Singapore?
Besides, if you can get the actual income inequality here, you may likely be shocked to death. Hello, there are plenty of illegal funds, if you know what I mean.
Eagle: Razali has no idea what being in the low-income category is. And he dares to make the comparison between Malaysia and Singapore.
Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) recipients total six million. These are adults. If each has a spouse and two children, that would represent 24 million people. Razali, what are you talking about?
The Analyser: The question is not one of comparison, but should be this: Are you satisfied with Malaysia's performance in this area? I'm not.
Malaysians are all too willing to soothe their selfish consciences by making comparisons rather than addressing the real issue.
Is anyone asking why Malaysia has such low incomes? It's clear that the Umno regime can keep the level of public service wages low, but what about the rest of the society?
Are all employers aligned with the government's ‘keep the masses poor and manipulable’ concept, or are there other forces at work?
Dalvik: Another minister caught dreaming. Singaporeans' home ownership rate is 90.5 percent, they have a big middle income group.
I'm sorry but no matter how your figure shows, the rakyat can't feel it. Stop telling us how good Malaysia is, face that fact that Malaysia's competitiveness is dropping.
Ipohcrite: Razali clearly does not understand statistics and what is meant by progress. Sigh!
He may be able to convince himself because his understanding of economic matters is just ankle deep, but the rakyat are savvier and less gullible than him.
Go consult a real economic expert, my dear deputy minister, not some half-past-six Umno adviser.
Hmmmmmmmm: If you compare the official incomes of the people, of course the coefficient is low because the gap between the lowest paid worker and highest paid is not that great, i.e. everybody is equally poor.
However if you compare the actual incomes, that's another story. Some have incomes well beyond their official salary.
From Penang: Assume the "bottom 40%" income is RM2,000 per month, an increase of 9.9% is RM198. Assume the "middle 40%" income is RM5,000 per month, an increase of 8.0% is RM400.
Assume the "top 20%" income is RM10,000 per month, an increase of 7.4% is RM740 (about 3.7 times more than RM198).
So, can we say the income gap is improving? Using percentages can be misleading.
Debater: This is a no brainer. Of course, our disparity is less because the wealth of the nation is concentrated in less than 2% of the population because they are the political elites.
The rest of the population has less wealth to share and therefore disparity is lower. We are just too poor to be different.
Naatamai: The GDP per capita for Singapore is from US$20,000 to US$55,000, and for Malaysia, it is between US$2,000 and US$10,000.
Even an uneducated person can figure out which country is better and that too without any natural resources.
Odysseus: Dear politicians, please do not play with numbers to hoodwink the public. If someone is poor, they are poor. Period. There is no money to feed the family. No money for schooling.
In simple words, the future is bleak. Your job as politicians is to fix this to ensure everyone has a decent life in this country.
BernieBaby: Very soon we'd see a comparison of ministers' pay between Singapore and Malaysia, thus justifying a pay increase for our ministers.
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