Singapore was never "cool." It was always a shopping mall masquerading as a city.
Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
111–120 of 298 posts
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#112Singapore was never "cool" as long as I remember in Asian expat circles since 90s. It's like the nice clean manicured places where boring expats who enjoys boiled potatoes and chicken breasts without spice settle. Dubai without all the high quality sin.
There's the fact that they created a first world economy out of nothing, unlike the Gulf countries that just found oil under their feet.
That's very true.
Singapore has done extremely well economically.
But it's not cool. That's something else.
Tokyo, for example, is cool, fashion, music, films and computer games come out of Tokyo.
But that's very hard to say of Singapore.
Perhaps it's like Luxembourg and Lisbon.
Admittedly the link at the top is from Marginal Revolution where 'cool' may mean economically successful and interesting for policy makers.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#113I think Singapore's immigration policy is still interesting and relevant to western countries, but it's true it's also kind of similar to the UAE. Essentially it's (relatively) easy to get work visas for areas where there's a genuine shortage but difficult to get permanent residency and almost impossible to get citizenship. That's still a very different policy to what most western countries have right now. The UAE ha…
This. My mental image of Singapore was always boring guys in suits working for soulless banks. At least Wall Street bankers go wild on drugs and know how to party. Singapore bankers are men who, when feeling adventurous, have a sip of wine here and there and women who push dogs in strollers. Having been to Singapore many times, I've realized my mental image was pretty accurate. There's no real art scene and even ment…
Close to a true perspective, especially if you came as one of those suits. There is soul in singapore, it's just actively co-opted by the govment or actively suppressed. You have to actually live here to see it and have friends who are not expats or mainland chinese (which is hard I think for most foreigners who come), it definitely isn't the same as the soul that you see in america or europe, I guess. The work life (a bit more chill than Japan or Korea but still harsh like the asian norm) doesn't help.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#114There's an extremely low fertility rate paired with a rapidly aging population. When I visited there were endless advertisements for geriatric type care / end-of-life type planning / etc, and a notably older population working quite low wage jobs in a place where everything was crazy expensive, especially relative to its northern neighbor. It felt depressing. It seems like one of those places that is probably quite n…
wrt the age demographics...
1.theres a constant supply of malaysian chinese who want to migrate to singapore. they're the best, cos they're culturally similar.
2.failing that,a few taiwanese or china chinese can also be allowed to immigrate. singapore is small, and china is huge. only need a few..
wrt living costs.. if u stick to govt subsidised housing(hdb),(public) transport,(hawker) food and healthcare, u shld be spending less as a % of income than the rest of asean on those things. but singaporeans want more, and leave in droves on trips overseas at every opportunity....
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#115There's an extremely low fertility rate paired with a rapidly aging population. When I visited there were endless advertisements for geriatric type care / end-of-life type planning / etc, and a notably older population working quite low wage jobs in a place where everything was crazy expensive, especially relative to its northern neighbor. It felt depressing. It seems like one of those places that is probably quite n…
I have to push back on this because you’re basically saying that old people visibly existing killed your vibe, and that jaywalking made you think less of the place. Heck, in a country with top-tier public housing (17th most affordable housing in the world) and healthcare (2nd best outcomes in the world, 12th highest life expectancy), how are you even sure those older people working jobs are “low paid?” Maybe you’re s…
The rapidly aging populace is bad for everyone including the old. Isiah 57:1. We should have had the “day of the pillow” that conservatives in Texas were advocating for during Covid.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#116I think Singapore's immigration policy is still interesting and relevant to western countries, but it's true it's also kind of similar to the UAE. Essentially it's (relatively) easy to get work visas for areas where there's a genuine shortage but difficult to get permanent residency and almost impossible to get citizenship. That's still a very different policy to what most western countries have right now. The UAE ha…
Do they get to vote? Also in general elections? Are they typically organised in unions?
There are elections but a combination of gerrymandering and honestly just good governance by the ruling party has kept them in power. People genuinely like the PAP. To the extent people vote for opposition candidates, most people would readily admit they do so only to send a message to the PAP. Most Singaporeans do not sincerely want to be ruled by anyone else yet.
Unionisation in Singapore is very different than the rest of the world. There is one very large union (the National Trades Union Congress, NTUC) but it mostly works with the government and the PAP and has a bit of a revolving door with some PAP MPs serving as leadership in NTUC. Wildcat strikes are illegal, and striking is generally not allowed. I think the last sanctioned strike by NTUC was in the 80s. The union does still generally represent workers in disputes between employers and the government and does other work on behalf of workers (trainings, some welfare, it runs the largest grocery chain that at least theoretically is supposed to be a social enterprise and a cooperative), so most members I think accept the arrangement, for what it's worth.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#117I think Singapore will always scare (in particular) Americans.
Rule-following, restrictive, collectivist, inclusive, intellectual, anti-corrupt, high-functioning ...
A politician like Donald Trump would never come out of Singapore.
And also Singapore is very much an inspiration for modern day China.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s a reason William Gibson called it “Disneyland with the Death Penalty” https://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/
Well, to get the death penalty you have to be charged. I actually think Singapore laws on what could get you the death penalty are pretty clear, and you'd be stupid to violate them. Being detained without trial seems scarier imo
You need not violate them knowingly. Just having drugs in your bag placed clandestinely by someone else could get you in trouble. Along with being held without trial and risk of death penalty, this is scary.
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Singapore has also somehow maintained a supermajority Chinese population consistently since the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Singapore (77% in 1970, 74.3% in 2020). That is even though the predominantly Muslim Malay population has had much higher total fertility than the Chinese population since 1980: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Total-Fertility-Rate-Per... . It seems like Singapore use…
> Singapore has also somehow maintained a supermajority Chinese population It’s not really a secret that Singapore uses ethnicity based quotas when granting PR and citizenship to maintain their demographic composition.
and theres no shortage of well educated malaysian chinese running away from bumi policies...
Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?
#120I think Singapore will always scare (in particular) Americans. Rule-following, restrictive, collectivist, inclusive, intellectual, anti-corrupt, high-functioning ... A politician like Donald Trump would never come out of Singapore. And also Singapore is very much an inspiration for modern day China.
I think the only thing you're wrong about is modern China is a lot more about face which also is part of Singapore's psyche but nowhere near as much. While there might be some book-cooking, it's nowhere near as bad as the blatant kpi fudging that provincial governments do in China. The CCP also is far more authoritarian than (yes) even the PAP. You do not have random ministers getting disappeared after they fall out of political favour with Xi Jingping.