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America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

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Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#311

Post by eru »

peruvian wrote: post #274
mark_l_watson wrote: post #21

I had the privilege of getting a working gig in Singapore for a small AI startup: such a well run country! There is a sense of community for helping by employing people who need jobs, the police were friendly and I felt very safe there (I like to take long walks either early in the morning or late at night and I felt very secure.) Amazing what the people and government have achieved since the end of WW2. 100% respect…

Singapore is an effective slave/permanent underclass state with few personal freedoms that is ethnically and culturally homogeneous (in each class). Not trying to do a "who's the bad/good country" but nothing about it really applies to the US or should.

Ethnically homogeneous? Do you know anything about Singapore?

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#312

Post by eru »

malshe wrote: post #156
mark_l_watson wrote: post #21

I had the privilege of getting a working gig in Singapore for a small AI startup: such a well run country! There is a sense of community for helping by employing people who need jobs, the police were friendly and I felt very safe there (I like to take long walks either early in the morning or late at night and I felt very secure.) Amazing what the people and government have achieved since the end of WW2. 100% respect…

I spent years in Singapore and loved it there. Never had to face road rage (which so many of us experience daily several times driving in Texas! NextDoor is full of these stories) or aggressive behavior by anyone in authority including police and immigration officers. I know many people find Singapore boring after a while but it didn't bother me much. On the flip side, the cost of living is high as a foreigner and tr…

Boring is good for business.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#313

Post by eru »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #237
mark_l_watson wrote: post #21

I had the privilege of getting a working gig in Singapore for a small AI startup: such a well run country! There is a sense of community for helping by employing people who need jobs, the police were friendly and I felt very safe there (I like to take long walks either early in the morning or late at night and I felt very secure.) Amazing what the people and government have achieved since the end of WW2. 100% respect…

I worked with a guy from sg. He gave me tips for when I went to visit. He hooked me up with a family member that showed me the backend a bit. The country effectively runs on a slave class. You must drive a new vehicle under 5 years old, and the license just to buy a car was $90,000 or so. This means an entire class of people that will be taking the bus to do your laundry and clean your house for the rest of their liv…

Slave class? What?

> You must drive a new vehicle under 5 years old, [..]

No? And no one is forced to drive anything. I don't own a car.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#314

Post by eru »

FredFS456 wrote: post #248
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked with a guy from sg. He gave me tips for when I went to visit. He hooked me up with a family member that showed me the backend a bit. The country effectively runs on a slave class. You must drive a new vehicle under 5 years old, and the license just to buy a car was $90,000 or so. This means an entire class of people that will be taking the bus to do your laundry and clean your house for the rest of their liv…

I agree with you that the migrant workers are effectively a serf class. However, I think it's fine that the SG government severely discourages owning a car. It's a small island with lots of people, there would be gridlock if everyone wanted their own car. The public transportation system is amazing and works well.

> I agree with you that the migrant workers are effectively a serf class.

Sounds like the Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics? Or 'out of sight, out of mind'?

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#315

Post by eru »

supertrope wrote: post #247
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked with a guy from sg. He gave me tips for when I went to visit. He hooked me up with a family member that showed me the backend a bit. The country effectively runs on a slave class. You must drive a new vehicle under 5 years old, and the license just to buy a car was $90,000 or so. This means an entire class of people that will be taking the bus to do your laundry and clean your house for the rest of their liv…

With the MRT not having a car is not bad. Paying 100K SGD for a Certificate of Entitlement (10 year car registration) is definitely a rich person move. Good point on the underclass and labor conditions.

Btw, that price for the Certificate of Entitlement is set by auction. The government only sets the total volume of CoE.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#316

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #303
kelvinjps10 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mrmoneymustache.com/2020/11/09/direct-primary-care/ https://mrmoneymustache.com/2017/11/05/when-your-shitty-heal... Regarding ACA >My family’s monthly health insurance premium, which had already more than doubled in the last few years to $674 per month, was going up a further 44% for the coming year. For no good reason, other than perhaps the the current government’s attempts to kill off the Affordable Care A…

How do you "work part time" when you need medical care to GET WELL ENOUGH to be able to work again? I.e. if you are in a serious car accident with a broken leg and broken arm, ain't no one hiring you just to let you sit around and get free health care.

And what part time jobs offer health insurance?

While I can drag myself out of bed most of the time as long as I have my right hand that I can type with [1] and walk over to my office most of the time if I am not feeling well, that’s big an option for most people.

[1] about that whole pre-existing condition thing. I have cerebral palsy that mostly affects my left hand and slightly my left foot. Even though I hadn’t been to a hospital since 1995 at the time for foot surgery - my only CP complication, had been a part time fitness instructor and could easily run a sub 10 minute mile up to a 15K at the time in 2012 - I couldn’t get private insurance. Now at 51, I’m still a gym rat with no CP related complications.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#317

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #276
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s almost impossible for an upper middle class couple to retire in the US before their 65 unless they have some type of government provided or private company provided health insurance like teachers, police officers, military etc. It’s about $25K a year for a decent plan which is doable. But you have to hope that Republicans - and yes this is a political issue - don’t successfully kill the ACA and make it impossibl…

[flagged]

Blame that on the private insurance companies.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#318

Post by gbacon »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #291
lelanthran wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't take it with you (at least in most religions) so spend it. I don't understand this PoV at all. I can't take it with me, sure, but I'm happy anyway if I leave it behind to my kids. This PoV that you need to spend, spend, spend to get the most value for your money is very primitive - my kids will do better if I die before touching my nest egg, and if I don't at least I'll have a longer runway to live withou…

The people who are against saving are also the people who want you to spend all your money on their product. It’s just the capitalist wanting more meat for the grinder.

This sort of high time-preference rabid consumptionist hucksterism is a symptom of the opposite of capitalism. A capitalist must favor saving because an economy grows through capital formation, which happens only following thrift and savings.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#319

Post by accurrent »

Aurornis wrote: post #124
cm2012 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average person does not make meaningful interest or investment income, its not practical to on individual small salaries.

In this case the citizens are forced to save, but the interest they're given is less than what they would have earned by saving the same amount on their own. Also, the average person in the United States does have meaningful investments toward retirement age.

This assumes citizens actually putp a lions share of their money into more risky investmemt vehicles. For reference, this may not be the case with a large swathes of our older population. Bank rates, t bills and bonds here are generally lower than cpf. If you are a high income earner the contribution is capped and combined with low taxes this is not a bad thing.

Re: America vs. Singapore: You can't save your way out of economic shocks

#320

Post by dexwiz »

rayiner wrote: post #2

A confounding factor here is that savings behavior is cultural rooted: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6135367/ . Studies show that people within a country can have substantially different savings behaviors, robustly correlated with their origin countries, even among people who are third generation immigrants. It’s a mistake to treat either the U.S. or Singapore as homogenous populations for purposes of this…

I once heard a linguistic explanation for this.

European languages have a future tense, which means people have different ideas of themselves in the present and future. You can even hear this in phrases like "that's a problem for future me."

While Chinese lacks the European styled future tense, ignoring time phrases, auxiliary verbs, etc. So people more clearly conceptualize their present and future selves as the same. Leading to things like increased saving.

This of course is rooted in linguist psychology, a very soft science. But still an interesting idea.

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