The Servant Class of Singapore

(Source: Tay Kay Chin)

Singapore is an adult Disneyland (with the death penalty).

It's a place where you can feel rich simply walking around the public spaces -- awe-inspiring buildings, beautifully-manicured parks, malls that look nothing like mallrats, etc

I've been wildly impressed, but it does all come at a cost.

(Source: My Modern Met) 

Singapore is the 3rd densest country in the world (it helps that it is a city state), which is a one-third reclaimed land.  It's also the 6th most expensive country in the world. 

This place is an architect's dream with high-rises going up everyday.

So, who's building these high-rises?
Not Singaporeans
Not Western-Expats

Singapore is a first-world country in the middle of a developing continent, so it leverages cheap labor from India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & the Philippines.  In fact, there are 300K construction workers in the country (about 6% of the total population).

They are doing a job I could never do in heat I could never withstand.

These workers are paid $700 per month.  A salary I could not live on.

(Source: Gratiane de Moustier)

So, now we know who is building Singapore.  Now, who is raising Singapore?

There are 200K domestic workers in Singapore (4% of the population) that make $400 USD per month (the employer is required to give them room & board).

As of 2012, only 12% got Sundays off.  The rest worked 7 days per week.

They are raising the children of Singapore while their children grow up alone in the Philippines or Indonesia.  In fact, Time Magazine has gone so far as to proclaim the Motherless Generation in Philippines.

It's one thing to read about globalization -- to hear about call centres in India or factories in China.  It's another thing to see it everyday.  To put a face to a movement.

(Source: Gonkar Gyatso)

So, what should happen?  I don't know.  I don't have an answer.  

On one hand, these workers are moving to Singapore for job opportunities they do not have in their home countries.  It goes back to Economics 101: Supply & Demand.  

Most of the great things throughout history have been built on the back of cheap (slave) labor -- the pyramids, the great wall of china, the colosseum.

On the other hand, it feels wrong.

Should we think twice before having children that we know will require a full-time live in nanny separated from her own children?

Should we accept slower construction and older buildings?

Should we be comfortable paying more -- the type of wage we'd be comfortable making if we were in their positions?