MEASURED BY ITS Gini coefficient, Singapore is among the world’s most unequal countries. The comparison is unfair: Singapore is also a city, and Hong Kong, New York and London all have higher Gini coefficients than it does. But Singapore measures its coefficient rather differently, excluding shorter-term foreign workers and non-working families. And, understandably, it includes employers’ CPF contributions as income. Since these are capped for higher-paid workers, that narrows the income gap.
Egalitarians are troubled by Singapore’s reliance on several hundred thousand low-paid foreigners. They are ubiquitous on building sites. Many live in crowded dormitories or worse. The frustrations some suffer were exposed by a riot in December 2013 after an Indian construction worker, on his Sunday off, was run over and killed by a bus. But such events are highly unusual.
Lee Hsien Loong thinks Singapore should not fret overly about its inequality rankings. “If I can get another ten billionaires to move to Singapore,” he said in 2013, “my Gini coefficient will get worse but I think Singaporeans will be better off, because they will bring in...
from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1Jk9MjT
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