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Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

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Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#91

Post by browningstreet »

somenameforme wrote: post #28

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.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#92

Post by booleandilemma »

I don't think Singapore was ever cool. In fact I'd say up until a few years ago most Americans didn't even know Singapore existed. Why would they? Now maybe that's changed with Crazy Rich Asians, Tiktok, and the "Senator, I'm Singaporean" meme. For SEA, Thailand was always the cool kid on the block.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#93

Post by rayiner »

ifwinterco wrote: post #4

I 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…

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 uses its immigration system in a deliberate way to maintain the political power of the dominant cultural group.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#94

Post by directevolve »

jpadkins wrote: post #58
marssaxman wrote: post #53

What a strange premise. Aside from the brief period of infamy around the Michael Fay case (mid-90s, a teenager caned for acts of petty vandalism), when were Americans ever paying attention to Singapore? The author keeps referring to "right-wing" this and that, so presumably he is buried too deep in some weird political subculture to realize that his question makes little sense to the rest of us.

Tyler Cowen used to blog about Singapore monthly, and now he does not. He reflected on why he doesn't. He admitted that he doesn't because its not cool to people in power. I find that a funny admission because I long suspected that academia's basic function is to suck up to power and justify whatever decisions the elite make.

Academia is a huge place, and no, its basic function is absolutely not to suck up to power. Every academic I know sees their function as the opposite, even if few take advantage of the limited protections afforded by tenure to speak truth to powers

But Tyler Cowen’s calling in particular is ABSOLUTELY to suck up to power.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#95

Post by typon »

browningstreet wrote: post #91
somenameforme wrote: post #28

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.

Even though it feels depressing right now, I think the post-boomer world is going to be an amazing place.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#96

Post by voidhorse »

wk_end wrote: post #67
lbrito wrote: post #45

>Yet today’s American political right is not very interested in technocracy. That is a deeply weird statement to make in 2026.

I think you're (understandably) interpreting "technocrat" differently than what the author intends and what it's historically meant. Technocrats form the foundation of the so-called "deep state" that Trump rails against: unelected bureaucrats - scientists, economists, doctors, researchers, engineers, statisticians - controlling low-level government policy (ideally) on the basis of data and knowledge of their particul…

Right, authoritarian oligarchy is much closer to what certain parties desire here in the States. Is unfortunate that the prospective oligarchs chose technology as their vehicle (of both oligarchy and authority, via surveillance, of course), and it's even more unfortunate that we let them do so.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#97

Post by rayiner »

maxglute wrote: post #69

Singapore 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.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#98

Post by deaux »

maxglute wrote: post #83
badc0ffee wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Dubai was Dubai without all the high quality sin.

Tame Orchard towers and four floors of whores never produced dubai chocolate tier of memes. Singapore is Disney with death penalty. Dubai is Disney with Minnie Mouse scat play. Hilariously, both great places to raise kids if you stick to the main attractions.

> Hilariously, both great places to raise kids if you stick to the main attractions.

I haven't heard of many examples of people having profoundly positive impacts on the world being raised in either of those two countries. Of course, this will be impacted by their size and in the case of Dubai, it's recent ascendancy. Still, it makes me very wary of that claim.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#99

Post by fooker »

typon wrote: post #95
browningstreet wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Even though it feels depressing right now, I think the post-boomer world is going to be an amazing place.

If we don't get into a world war, sure.

Re: Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

#100

Post by deaux »

csa wrote: post #79
FatherOfCurses wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and whenever I see anyone gushing about Singapore that's the first place my mind goes. You can keep your 1000 different Instagrammable spots, I'd rather go some place that is a little more into democracy and reasonable policing.

> reasonable policing Policing SOPs in East Asia (incl. Singapore) is different than policing SOPs in the west. Typically people are warned, often multiple times, that they are in danger of experiencing the less kind side of local law. Once the switch is flipped, this gentle hand becomes an iron fist. I will bet dollars to donuts that the person who was held without charge for decades (mentioned above) was completely…

You quoted "reasonable", but nothing what you said has any effect on reasonableness.

If someone warns you that they're going to murder you if you post another 5 comments on HackerNews, and keeps you up-to-date with every comment you make, nothing about those warnings makes the subsequent murder after your 5th comment more reasonable than if they hadn't given those warnings.

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