Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

governance.fyi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 488 posts

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

#421

Post by snayan »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #253
Retric wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some did. The US expat community has been quite large for decades. Most people didn’t do FIRE style early retirement while dealing with pre existing medical conditions. There however was plenty of expats pre ACA who very much left the country for early retirement. US healthcare is ruinously expensive but on average it’s not particularly good if you’re in the income bracket where 1/4 million over a few years is a seri…

There is absolutely no significant number of Americans who left without ties to other countries. I find it rich that Americans who leave the US call themselves “ex-pats” instead of “immigrants”

There's a difference in intention between ex-pat and immigrant. Ex-pat's tend to think of themselves as being wherever they are temporarily, but intending to return to their home country. Immigrants desire is to make wherever they are their new home country.

If you're saying that people who have permanently left the US call themselves ex-pats, that is news to me, and I can understand the confusion.

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

#422

Post by snayan »

mathgladiator wrote: post #331
glimshe wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FIRE community and my own personal situation prove you very, very wrong. It's absolutely possible for a upper middle class family to retire in their 50s, even in their 40s, if they live frugally.

I retired on my 40th birthday, and it is AWESOME. The thing is... no one has anything that I want to buy. I don't mean this in an elitist way, but more of a monk way. Like, I don't understand status and keeping up with people.

This is the way.

Like good meals, but I don't really understand the allure of owning a bunch of things.

The ego, when left to it's own devices, is a hell of a drug.

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

#423

Post by snayan »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #234
jandrewrogers wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know several people with normie jobs (not tech related or government) and normie lifestyles that saved up enough money to never need to work again by 50 while still maintaining their lifestyle. Most still work because they have no idea what to do with their time even though they don’t need to work anymore. You can easily derive that this is possible from the median household finance statistics published by BLS, nev…

No one is doubting that it is possible to save enough to retire by the time you’re 50 - as long as the ACA and the open market is viable.

Just leave the US, problem solved.

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

#424

Post by autoexec »

InkCanon wrote: post #389
autoexec wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> virtually all Singaporeans believe they own their houses, and it is a point of pride and financial security. Most houses are on 99 year leases It's not as if the US fairs any better. Here you never own your home, you have to pay property taxes your whole life (basically rent) or it will be taken from you. Eminent domain means that they can take your property from you at any time even if you've kept paying them. Sin…

Property taxes also apply in Singapore and I believe in practice eminent domain is rarely exercised. But the home ownership rate is the thing I feel the most I should correct. It is very heavily pushed that Singaporeans own their homes. But legally they are renters. By a proper definition, probably something like 90% of Singaporeans are renters, not home owners.

Eminent domain is probably not as rare as you'd think (https://ij.org/case/?pillar=eminent-domain)

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

#425

Post by quibono »

eru wrote: post #365
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I promise you do not need to explain scarcity to me :) the issue is that the disparity between I can’t afford a car, and I will never be able to afford a car is vast. The slave class exist to do nothing but serve (be on the street at 2300, it’s poor people running power washers everywhere you go). The entire country runs on Chinese goods in shipping containers going to the US. It’s a tax state. Don’t get me wrong, un…

> The entire country runs on Chinese goods in shipping containers going to the US. It’s a tax state. If that's true: tell me, why do people in the US or China pay for an expensive transit in Singapore? > (be on the street at 2300, it’s poor people running power washers everywhere you go). What?

If you go out into the street at 11pm you'll see poor people running power washers everywhere you go

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

#426

Post by nosianu »

eru wrote: post #308
nosianu wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless we scale back our lives significantly, and are fine with a lot less stuff and vacations and devices and modernized living (houses and transit today are vastly more complex systems than a few decades ago), there simply is no way to let a large number of people live like rich people. I grew up in East Germany, and while it was a total failure, they got at least one idea correct in the workers paradise: We need t…

Coincidentally, I was born in East Germany and now live in Singapore. Even in unified Germany you can have fun. I think actually a lot more. You can run your own independent cooperatives etc.

[dead]

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

#427

Post by eru »

quibono wrote: post #425
eru wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire country runs on Chinese goods in shipping containers going to the US. It’s a tax state. If that's true: tell me, why do people in the US or China pay for an expensive transit in Singapore? > (be on the street at 2300, it’s poor people running power washers everywhere you go). What?

If you go out into the street at 11pm you'll see poor people running power washers everywhere you go

I've lived here since 2017. I have yet to see the poor people running power washers at night.

Which neighbourhood do you suggest I visit for this spectacle?

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

#428

Post by eru »

itemize123 wrote: post #409
eru wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, some people think 'out of sight, out of mind' is great ethics! See https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QXpxioWSQcNuNnNTy/...

no, more precisely, they can actively think about it and still believe it's not an issue. For example they can justify that the migrant workers are given a choice etc or it's better than some of their alternative.

If it's not clear: that's pretty close to what I believe, yes.

Calling the opposite position 'out of sight, out of mind' or 'The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics' kind of gives my disdain for it away, I thought?

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

#429

Post by Otterly99 »

heathrow83829 wrote: post #265
bjourne wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistics! Can a person below the median income afford to retire early? The answer is a resounding no. Can a person the top 10th percentile (upper middle class) afford to retire early? Yes.

there are still tribes in the amazon that have very little money, like the hazda. they may not call it retirement but they don't need to go to the office everyday. Serious question, what makes us so addicted and dependent to money that we can't imagine any way of life without a lot of it?

Hate to be that guy, but the Hazda live in Tanzania.

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

#430

Post by oblio »

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.

> Singapore is an effective slave/permanent underclass state with few personal freedoms that is ethnically and culturally homogeneous (in each class).

Can you expand on this? Which ethnicity/culture is in which class?

Post reply on HN