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Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

marginalrevolution.com

161–170 of 298 posts

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#161

As a German expat who lived in Singapore for 3 years, it’s still the best country I ever lived in and I’ve also worked in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan HK, and Germany. Everything works, it’s very efficient, public transit and internet is good and it’s extremely safe. It also has great food and has low taxes. Most Western countries just can’t compete and while the UAE is pretty well run in some aspect, there…

It's strange that you mention the religious part of UAE making you uneasy, and not the modern day slavery.

A country where 10% of people are citizens, there’s a few expats, and nearly everyone else is a Bangladeshi or Nepali slave laborer doing all the work. With no rights, no prospect of citizenship, etc. The Davos view of where societies are headed.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#162

There'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…

Singapore is small enough to kick the can down the road, but it’s still not sustainable to depend on immigration from other places that also have below replacement TFR

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#163

There'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…

This is actually the whole developed world at the moment. Every place is a retirement community now.

Yes. Annapolis, where I live, is fucking depressing.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#164

As a German expat who lived in Singapore for 3 years, it’s still the best country I ever lived in and I’ve also worked in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan HK, and Germany. Everything works, it’s very efficient, public transit and internet is good and it’s extremely safe. It also has great food and has low taxes. Most Western countries just can’t compete and while the UAE is pretty well run in some aspect, there…

> Everything works, it’s very efficient, public transit and internet is good and it’s extremely safe. It also has great food and has low taxes. Most Western countries just can’t compete…

Why do you think New York or Chicago isn’t like this? What could western countries change?

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#166
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UAE still murders gay men just for beeing gay. Besides the lack of morality this affects 7 % of all men worldwide. Im not sure if UAE really be an exciting place and thus would someone migrate to it if you care about culture and stuff.

Yes, Singapore will execute people for different reasons, not for being gay.

That’s a pretty big fucking difference though.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#167
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So your plan is endless growth? When is the population high enough to stop doing that? How is that supposed to work logistically? In what scenario does that not result in societal collapse within a short few lifetimes? Endless growth and the inevitable planetary destruction/exhaustion from that process isn’t good for anyone, either. It’s easier to adapt to a shrinking population than one that is too large to sustain…

We have a whole damn solar system we’re barely even using. Overpopulation is a fake bugbear of small minded bucket crabs.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#168
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any source for the 2015 case? All I found was executions of pedophile rapists

I think you're right. While the UAE doesn't execute people for pedophilia, per se, the homosexuality element was what allowed for it.

Many traditional cultures don’t really distinguish between homosexuality and pedarasty. That distinction, or at least the cultural recognition of a distinction, is largely a distinctive artifact of the sexual revolution, a western phenomenon.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#169

As a German expat who lived in Singapore for 3 years, it’s still the best country I ever lived in and I’ve also worked in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan HK, and Germany. Everything works, it’s very efficient, public transit and internet is good and it’s extremely safe. It also has great food and has low taxes. Most Western countries just can’t compete and while the UAE is pretty well run in some aspect, there…

> Everything works, it’s very efficient, public transit and internet is good and it’s extremely safe. It also has great food and has low taxes. Most Western countries just can’t compete… Why do you think New York or Chicago isn’t like this? What could western countries change?

This is obviously oversimplified but I think this is a big factor:

Singapore is a business masquerading as a country. While it is technically democratic, in practice there are some barriers preventing truly free and fair elections. That being said, the leaders in Singapore are not corrupt and truly do focus on what's best for the country. As a result decisions are made quickly, for the greater good, and are not politically driven. The leadership have the latitude to make decisions that they believe will make the country better. Sometimes these decisions don't have a lot of public support (because people are naturally more short-sighted) but, because of the political system, they don't need to rely on public support.

In the case of Singapore, I think this dynamic has led to a compounding effect of good decisions that have put the country in such a strong place today. You see this similarly with Norway's oil fund; it was likely unpopular initially to reinvest so much money into savings, but today it's paying off where they have a $2T savings account, from which they can withdraw up to 3% annually ($60B) for the needs of Norway.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an interesting aspect of fertility rate that most don't know. They also determine the exact age ratios within a society! Imagine a population has a global fertility rate of 1 (and in Singapore it's even lower, though not globally - yet). That means each successive generation is half as large as the one prior. And we can approximate the age of fertility as between 20 and 40. So now let's start with 1 newborn a…

Thankfully there's infinite people from other countries who can migrate freely and replace the aging population, right? (Serious question)

Where do you propose regularly finding hundreds of millions of skilled English speakers of similar values who are interested in permanently migrating to what will be countries clearly in decline?
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