Comment by saturn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by saturn | Hacker News Reader

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What kind of business are you talking about? Your comment sounds very "labour vs. capital", is it relevant to the kind of start-up commonly discussed here?

If I started a business in Singapore (and I have been considering it) I would be hiring employees that I liked and respected, and I'd pay them fairly. I can't imagine that I'd fire them "at will" because I found someone a few bucks cheaper, or that they'd abandon me for a few bucks more. I can't imagine high-value knowledge workers playing these kind of games. Maybe discount supermarkets poach each other's check-out workers but rails programmers?

And even if you were hiring relatively blue collar workers, eg if you were setting up a factory, it seems to me that the fact of being in a hands-off regulatory environment would make employees respond even better to being treated well.

Just because in theory you can get away with acting like an asshole, doesn't mean you have to, or it is wise for you to do so.

You will find that sticking to your principles of paying fairly will be difficult, because Singapore is quickly becoming one of the most expensive cities to live in.

What you save in taxes, you will pay back many folds in rental and transportation costs. If you have never been to Singapore, you will not be able to imagine how much it costs to own a car in Singapore. Most expensive in the world, by far.

And because of the ease of hiring foreigners, you will find that there will be plenty of cheap rails programmers available... may not be the type you want, but you will find pressure from elsewhere questioning why you overpay your staff when cheaper ones are available.

And for a population conditioned to ill treatment, you will find that you will not be able to change the cynical culture overnight.

Lastly, if your competition is also based in Singapore, then you will be competiting with assholes with asshole level productivity and cost structures. Over the long term, you will win. But over the short term, you will be choked to death by the assholes who can promise more and cost less.

Thanks for your response. I didn't see it earlier, I try not to look at HN too often..

I've been to Singapore many times, and am fully aware of how much it costs to own a car. I live in Sydney, which if anything is more expensive than SG except for the car taxes. I do not consider Singapore to be expensive compared to Australia.

You refer often to appearances to others - investors, perhaps, comparing your costs of labour to other companies? What other oversight would you be experiencing?

Honestly I hadn't really thought about hiring cheap natives. Singapore is something of a hub for expats and I was thinking I would just invite anyone I needed.

If you have exeperience with running a startup style business in singapore I would love to hear about it.

I think you are right that the key is to get away from the labor vs capital direction.

It means ensuring that your early employees have a stake in the business. I would think that the stock options approach would be fairly similar.

The issue is that if there is a serious labor vs capital division, the struggle is going to hurt everyone.

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