171–180 of 245 posts
I would live in Singapore full time if it wasn't so fucking hot. How can they have such prosperity with such a low tax rate and no natural resources?
As someone from Bangladesh, I read this and think "who cares?" In 1960 Singapore was a poor third world country. Today it's as rich as the US. You cannot understand how significant such a change is to the people of the country unless you've lived in a third world country and really seen what it's like. Whatever draconian measures it took to get there, they were worth it. Fareed Zakaria's interview with Lee Kuan Yew,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Repression is a set of vicious laws that strictly punish people who step out of line, not a vibe. It's alright to enjoy a repressive culture, but odds are it because the laws are directed at people who are not you, to keep them from bothering you. That's why a good sign of repression is presidents-for-life and political dynasties. You didn't need the laws unless you had a population who wanted to do the things.
The laws exist to keep the minority of counter culture people from disrupting the orderly society enjoyed by the majority. Elevating the “rights” of the minority over the comfort of the majority is not a universal value.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Singapore isn't noticeably more repressive than other countries in South East Asia. All things considered, I'd say it probably leans on the more open side, but these things are hard to judge. If people want to avoid South East Asia altogether because it's systems are too different, they're welcome to. But I don't think it makes sense to expect everyone to write off the entire region. As for culture, Gibson is dismiss…
Repression is a set of vicious laws that strictly punish people who step out of line, not a vibe. It's alright to enjoy a repressive culture, but odds are it because the laws are directed at people who are not you, to keep them from bothering you. That's why a good sign of repression is presidents-for-life and political dynasties. You didn't need the laws unless you had a population who wanted to do the things.
You can even look at capital punishment, which the article headline highlights. Most countries in the region have it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The usual fallacy, which you also make in your post, is assuming that none of that improvement would have happened under a free and democratic regime. That all improvements were because of iron-rule authoritarianism. Of course there are quite literally thousands of reasons that explain Singapore's economic growth. Attributing everything to only one of them, to the influence of an enlightened dictator, is silly. Want…
It’s not an assumption, but a conclusion based on the evidence. I’m not aware of any Asian, African, or middle eastern country where freedom and democracy led to prosperity. There’s lots of democracies in these places that haven’t been able to translate that into prosperity. On the flip side, China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore are all examples where authoritarian rule has led to prosperity. I’d include Bangladesh the…
Gibson ascribes this to the fairly authoritarian nature of the Singapore government, but I think a much bigger contributor to this feeling is simply the age of everything there.
I think the "culprit" is the fact that they experienced a tremendous amount of growth and socio-economic upward momentum in an incredibly small amount of time. This means that in any given neighborhood, every structure you can see was likely built within a decade or two of any other visible structure. It's not like London or even New York City which grew organically and slowly over centuries.
You can wander around the endless seas of identical strip-malls and suburban neighborhoods that have exploded in places like Utah and Texas over the last 20-30 years for a similar feeling of emptiness and homogeneity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
California also has 7 times the population of Singapore. None of which invalidates the fact that California does, in fact, have the death penalty, in marked contrast to most of the Western world.
Not in practice. The brand-new death house was mothballed (which really means locked closed) on orders of the governor. There's been some talk over vacating death sentences, but courts are really reticent to do that while the penalty remains on the books, even if it's not enforced. If the state rescinded Newsom's moratorium, there's still a court-ordered moratorium that would remain in effect (once again proving that…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The usual fallacy, which you also make in your post, is assuming that none of that improvement would have happened under a free and democratic regime. That all improvements were because of iron-rule authoritarianism. Of course there are quite literally thousands of reasons that explain Singapore's economic growth. Attributing everything to only one of them, to the influence of an enlightened dictator, is silly. Want…
It’s not an assumption, but a conclusion based on the evidence. I’m not aware of any Asian, African, or middle eastern country where freedom and democracy led to prosperity. There’s lots of democracies in these places that haven’t been able to translate that into prosperity. On the flip side, China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore are all examples where authoritarian rule has led to prosperity. I’d include Bangladesh the…
Is Hong Kong now more prosperous, after it moved to authoritarian rule?
What are your criteria for "authoritarian", that you count Japan among authoritarian countries?
What is your evidence that the authoritarian policies were the deciding factor in generating prosperity for these countries?
"No we're not, your literature is now BANNED".
I've been to Singapore twice for pretty short stays but I came away describing it (without having read Gibson's article) as Disney Land without the rides. My peak Singapore experience was going to a club (No lie. DJ Jazzy Jeff was there.) and wandering out of the place late at night wandering around trying to figure out where the hotel was. Here's the thing. Strange City. Middle of the night. I felt totally safe and…
At least the areas I have been in. (Which would be 1% of Japan maybe) I could not believe they had vending machines that sold laptops and other highly expensive items.
That thing would be robbed hours after it was mounted where I come from.
I have been told a couple of times, that if you commit violent crime against someone in Tokyo you need to be more worried about reprisals from organized crime than from the police.
I presume it is an urban myth but coming from the US it is hard to imagine how Japan is able to keep the streets as safe as they do.