Income Inequality in SG.

Singapore's Gini coefficient was 0.478 for the year 2009.
(A figure of 0 indicates extreme equality while a figure
of 1 indicates extreme income inequality.)
This is according to SingStat. Aft adjustment for
taxes, benefits and other transfer payments, it supposedly
falls to 0.453. Honestly, it hardly makes a difference for a figure
in the neighbourhood of 0.45-ish.

For comparison, Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea have a statistic
which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 0.25 to 0.35.
In other words, a pretty marked difference.

What this means, whether it's good or bad all depends on who
you ask. But I wld think tt one major factor contributing to e relatively
higher income inequality in Singapore is that the govt openly welcomes
foreigners. Again quoting SingStat, the total number of Singaporeans
and PRs as of 2009 was some 3.73 million. This is against a total
of 4.99 million. Percentage wise, 25% or one-quarter of the people
on this island are foreigners who can pack-up and go at almost
any time they want.

Now, I don't have the numbers for Korea or Taiwan or Japan, but I would
reckon that the percentage over there is much much much less.
It is my guess tt e presence of these foreigners (some 25% of them)
has done much to distort the income equality profile of SG.
Don't get me wrong - they r not included in the Gini statistic.
But they do compete with our locals for jobs. As a result, lowly-paid
Singaporeans find themselves fighting with people fr China or Bangladesh
who are willing to work for even less they are. Their already dismal pay,
say less than $1000 per mth, drops even lower.
If I am not mistaken, the same thing is happening in the US, which
has a roughly similar Gini coefficient and rather similar levels of
immigrant labour.

In sum, it wld be misleading to take Gini statistics at face value...
Now, whether having so many foreigners on our island is a good or
bad thing is another issue for others to debate.