In our Selected Exhortations category, we republish interesting stuff such as must-read articles and essays not originally written exclusively for the blawg, and which have come to our attention. Please feel free to email [email protected] if you would like to reproduce your writing, but first follow our Writer’s Guide here.
If PEMANDU indeed delivers on its ETP goals, entrepreneurs and capitalists will be the big winners. Wage-earners will get only 21% of the additional RM800 million gross national income (GNI) the ETP promises to create. This is less than the 28% share they get today, and will take us even further away from the 50% norm in high-income countries.
We believe corporations are entitled to profits, but a sustainable high-income nation needs a vibrant middle-class to sustain private consumption. The ETP fares poorly here. The small share to wage-earners will be unevenly distributed – the top 15% of employees will take 40% of all wages. Conversely, at the bottom end, the ETP will need at least another 2 million low-paid foreign workers, which will double the number we have today.
It’s the bosses who will be the big winners under the ETP.
Read more in the final part of our critique of the ETP (Part 6) – The ETP will make the rich even richer.
Click here for an archive of our Focus Papers.
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