While Mr Goh made a valid point about food cost differentials between China and Singapore, the comparison countries cited, I feel this is broad tar-brushing or generalising the issue.

China can be cheap or exorbitant, depending on where you are located and whether you are paid on quasi-expat terms or local terms.

Indeed, in the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Cost of Living Survey - Worldwide Ranking 2007 (including housing), first-tier Chinese cities such as Beijing (#20) and Shanghai (#26) rank just behind Singapore (14th) and ahead of other cities in developed countries such as Barcelona (#31) and Munich (#40).

Wages only become meaningful in relation to prices, that is, what can be purchased with money earned. Central China's Hubei province, where Mr Goh is based, is a second-tier Chinese city and it is not uncommon to find such low food prices as he mentioned. Yet food cost is only part of the equation.

In Singapore, the consumer price index is expected to rise 3.7-4.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, making it a 16-year high for Singapore. Yet this is low compared to China's consumer price increase of 6.9 per cent in November from a year earlier.

Also consider this fact: In China, there are 4.95 million new graduates this year, on top of the 1.24 million unemployed graduates from last year. About seven new graduates in 10 can find a job.

According to a local website on graduates' salary expectations in Beijing, about 48 per cent of graduates with a bachelor's degree expect their first job to pay between 1,001 yuan (S$198) and 2,000 yuan (S$395) a month. It is not uncommon to find thousands of people, many armed with newly-minted MBAs and even PhDs, competing for one job opening.

While we should not "forget the poor folks who find life a struggle", such mind-boggling statistics from China should expand our cognizance of global issues and put things in perspective as Singapore becomes further globalised. As Steve Jobs puts it succinctly, "Stay hungry, stay foolish".

Su Yuxiong

Shanghai, China