Live data from Hacker News

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

palladiummag.com

251–260 of 262 posts

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK one of LKY’s stated goals was to compete with private corporations for the best talent by paying comparably. DPMs are paid quite handsomely but not incomparable to C suite pay at large companies.

Not incomparable meaning DPMs are paid comparable to C suites at large companies?

from Wikipedia:

>Singapore's ministers are the highest paid in the world. Prior to a salary review in 2011, the Prime Minister's annual salary was S$3.07 million, while the pay of ministerial-grade officers ranged between S$1.58 million and S$2.37 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Singapore

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the world is a super simple place with super simple answers to seemingly complex questions. When I asked my friend which is better authoritarianism or democracy he told me the answer is complicated. I told him to look at the evidence: Almost Every civilization in history: egyptians, romans, greeks, China was more or less some form of authoritarian government. They all failed. Basically every single civiliza…

I assume this is sarcasm because by definition every non modern civilization is no longer with us. Including some of the early more democratic ones like Athens.

You shouldn't be asking yourself whether the post is sarcasm. You should be asking yourself does my post fit with the logic provided by the initial post?

Then if the logic fits with the logic of the initial post you should ask yourself is the logic absurd?

If so then that means the initial post is absurd.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#253
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is somewhat of a naive view -- the risks of any kind of dictatorship far outweigh any slight chance of good.

I tend to agree -- it seems to me that democracy creates ecological conditions favorable to long-term survival, because the risk of destruction under dictatorship is asymmetric with respect to the probability of prosperity. Democratic checks-and-balances assume the inescapability of despotic buffoons who rise to power either through force or sometimes even through the people's choice (while it's good to believe in th…

The problem is there's no definitive evidence that proves this yet.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the world is a super simple place with super simple answers to seemingly complex questions. When I asked my friend which is better authoritarianism or democracy he told me the answer is complicated. I told him to look at the evidence: Almost Every civilization in history: egyptians, romans, greeks, China was more or less some form of authoritarian government. They all failed. Basically every single civiliza…

Lol. I think you should give US more time to fail? (I guess). It's only 260 so years. That's too short if you place it into human history.

Kind this if you don't count the civil war as a reset point, one might as well not count civil wars/dynastic changes in ancient civilizations.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#255
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hand-waving things away with your absolutist statement is what truly seems naive. IMO there is far more nuance than you suggest. Democracy seems to work well for some types of problems but not others. What happens to democracies when faced with threats that manifest over very short timescales? They aren't nimble enough to respond in time. This is most evident in larger democracies; look at US/India responses to COVID…

Countries like Australia, South Korea and New Zealand have had exemplary COVID-19 responses. It has nothing to do with whether you are a democracy or not and everything to do with the competence of the government. And the people of the US will have an opportunity to vote in a few months on whether the response was adequate or not. I don't see the people of China having a similar opportunity for example.

I mentioned that I believe problems manifest as scale increases. Do you think there is a difference between implementations of democracy in a large country vs a small one? I do.

To clarify after some further thought - I think the bureaucratic burden scales much more drastically in a democratic system. In a large democracy all decisionmaking becomes mired in a swamp. Of course all governments will require more and more delegation and bureaucracy as the population grows, but IMO to a lesser degree in an authoritarian system, because there is no need to come to a broad consensus before making choices.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if that's a fair judgement - It seems particularly endemic that it's almost a meme/stereotype in itself in Singapore; that all cab drivers are discontent with the government

Singapore is not a democracy. They have sham elections where the opposition party is only allowed to have media coverage by the single state run media channel for three weeks before the election. If your neighborhood votes for the opposition party you lose funding for things like public transportation. Lee Kuan Yew lives in a giant, gated, guarded compound in the middle of the most valuable real estate in the city. A…

> Also criticizing the government is a crime and saying the wrong thing on facebook can land you in prison.

Would you mind linking the specific law(s) you talk about here?

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#257
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> live with parents until marry This is a culture thing, nothing to do with being conservative/liberal. Renting in Singapore is expensive, therefore people prefer to stay with parents until they can afford to buy their own HDB.

Has everything to do with conservative/liberal. Living with parents your whole life until marriage produces conservative non risk takers, and there is a conservative political policy behind it that prevents you from obtaining HBD housing until you marry.

I think it's really just more of the ruthless pragmatism that makes this place so efficient and a consequence of land scarcity. Housing is limited and leaving it up to the free market would exacerbate wealth inequality. Therefore the government steps in with subsidized housing, which almost by definition will have more demand than supply. Prioritizing young families makes sense as the birth rate is below replacement.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#258
post #19

The article failed to mention 1 important thing: LKY built an incorruptible government. With all the power he had, he could have done so much better for his family if he just tried, but that wouldn't necessarily be good for the country. A lot of countries want to be Singapore, but few have a leader of his caliber.

He lives in a giant mansion surrounded by armed guards in the middle of the city. Any criticism of him is illegal and can land you in prison.

Would you mind linking the law you're talking about?

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#259
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression is housing is good for tenants in Berlin. What isn't so good about it?

It's good for many tenants who have longstanding leases, but rent increases have outstripped salary increases in all the better neighborhoods, by an almost laughable margin, for more than ten years. A fair amount of that was fueled by long-term tenants getting kicked out by their new landlords who "needed" to reside in the flats. Similar gentrification model to parts of San Francisco. So yeah, some things in Berlin a…

Don't be so picky, move to Marzahn!

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

#260
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries like Australia, South Korea and New Zealand have had exemplary COVID-19 responses. It has nothing to do with whether you are a democracy or not and everything to do with the competence of the government. And the people of the US will have an opportunity to vote in a few months on whether the response was adequate or not. I don't see the people of China having a similar opportunity for example.

I mentioned that I believe problems manifest as scale increases. Do you think there is a difference between implementations of democracy in a large country vs a small one? I do. To clarify after some further thought - I think the bureaucratic burden scales much more drastically in a democratic system. In a large democracy all decisionmaking becomes mired in a swamp. Of course all governments will require more and mor…

Good point.

Additionally, complexity also scales. A dictatorship relies more on the common sense of the dictator while a democracy relies on a set of written laws that grows with complexity over time. A single party does not need a contract while at least two parties must engage in a contract called a written body of law in order to come to an agreement. This "contract" is edited and amended over time with no limit to how complex it gets.

In fact, that complexity balloons to a point where only experts can understand the law (lawyers). It also grows to the point where the law is so complex that it can become internally inconsistent and develop loop holes that do not serve the original intended purpose of the law.

This allows for entities to exploit these loop holes. Of course only entities with enough money to afford the "experts" to find the loop holes and exploit them will be able bend the laws to their advantage thereby causing only the rich and elite to become more powerful.

The above is the basic theory about the anthropological progression of your typical democracy. Growth in complexity of a body of law to the point where only the elite can afford to hire specialists to take advantage of said law.

That is the main danger of democracy. Excess Complexity to the point where only people who can afford specialists to change the law can exploit it to their advantage. Complexity of law also leads to all kinds of other phenomena that niche experts and common people can take advantage of as well. For example constructors that take advantage of property law.

The scary thing about the theory above is that there is a TON evidence of this. Almost every modern democracy in the world suffers from ALL of the problems above. Literally find me one that doesn't.

Post reply on HN