Economy after the pandemic How to cope with a reduced demand in the economy

I asked a question - how can the economy in Singapore deal with the drop in demand and keep the people employed.

Here is my proposed solution.

The government should pass a law to reduce the working hours by 30%. This will avoid a 30% fall in employment.

The business will get a subsidy from the government to cover 30% of the payroll.

This is similar to the Job Support Scheme, but it is applied to all businesses and extended for a longer period.

The 30% wage subsidy will apply to local workers only. This will encourage the businesses to give preference to local workers in any retrenchment exercise.

How does the government get the money to pay this wage subsidy?

It will eat into the reserves.

When the economy recovers, the wage subsidy can be reduced (and the working hours increased) until it gets back to normal.

The future "normal" may be a working week that is less than 40 hours (5 days X 8 hours). It could be 35 hours or 30 hours.

I have released the secret. Some spies will be passing it to the ministers who will take credit for this suggestion. And they will still earn their million dollar salaries.

Life is unfair. Singapore is like that.

Tan Kin Lian

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