Singapore is a tiny country, so tiny you can
drive across the island in just an hour. Despite its size and lack of natural resources,
Singapore’s 5.6 million people enjoy one of the highest average incomes in the world,
ahead of countries like Germany, France and Japan. So, how did this little
island get so rich? Singapore doesn’t have resources like coal or oil but it
does have something countries can’t buy, location. The island sits in the middle of an important
trade route connecting Asia to Europe. That’s a key reason why the British decided,
back in 1819, to set up a colony in Singapore. Location isn’t everything though. There are several countries nearby that
could have made use of their whereabouts, but they weren’t quite
as successful. That’s because there are other ingredients
that go into this crazy rich Singapore recipe. I’m at the Raffles Hotel, which is one of the most
prominent icons of Singapore’s colonial history. Unlike some of its neighbors, which wanted to
separate themselves from their colonial histories, Singapore kept close ties with Britain,
even after independence in 1965. That decision announced to the rest of the
world that Singapore was open for business. That’s important because we know now that
exports help to grow and expand an economy. But back then, it wasn’t
conventional wisdom. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea,
became known as the four Asian tigers, which have grown rapidly
since the 1960s. Their rise was fueled by exports, industrialization and
more crucially, big doses of government intervention. This was especially
true for Singapore. Labor strikes were common on the island in
the 1960s, even with high unemployment. On top of that, there
was a housing crisis, with Singapore being home to one of the
largest slum settlements in the world. So how do you build a more disciplined
labor force to attract investment? Well, you give them something to
work for, like a house of their own, which is why one of the first Singapore
government agencies set up was focused on building
affordable public housing. While just nine percent of the population
lived in public housing in the 1960s, that figure stands at more
than 80 percent today, add in greater employer rights and
strikes became extremely rare. At the same time, the government attracted
foreign investment through tax incentives, growing the economy
and easing unemployment, which fell from an estimated 14 percent
in 1959 to 4.5 percent in the 1970s. By the 1980s, Singapore was
a regional manufacturing hub, and it was the world’s biggest
producer of hard disk drives. But today, manufacturing makes up only
about 20 percent of Singapore’s GDP. Take a look at Singapore’s growth in GDP. You can see two big surges, one beginning in the late
80s and another at the start of the new millennium. Ironically, Singapore has a
downturn to thank for that. You see, in 1985, Singapore went into
its first post-independence recession, prompting the government
to introduce new measures. State-owned companies like telecommunications
were privatized to make them more competitive. Then at the turn of the century, service industries
like finance and insurance were further liberalized. That openness helped to grow the share of
services from just 24 percent of GDP in 1985 to more than 70 percent in 2017. Multinational companies began to set
up regional headquarters in Singapore. That attracted even bigger players, boosting Singapore’s
attractiveness to corporates and in turn its GDP. Now, Singapore is ranked as one of the
world’s easiest places to do business. Singapore has been praised for transforming
itself from a developing to a developed economy. But do most Singaporeans feel rich? Well, not exactly. Two of the most
important reasons? The high cost of living and inequality. For five years in a row, Singapore has been
named the world’s most expensive city, ahead of New York
and London. That’s largely because of taxes on cars, making
Singapore the most expensive place in the world to buy and run
an automobile. It’s also the third most expensive
place on Earth to buy clothes. But personal care, household goods
and domestic help in Singapore tend to be less expensive
than in other major cities. While Singapore is rich in terms of GDP per
capita, the median monthly salary is $3,270. That doesn’t sound too bad, but about 20 percent
of that goes into a mandatory savings account. You can use that account to pay for
medical bills, housing and education, but it does restrict the purchasing
power of the population. You’ve probably heard of the movie Crazy
Rich Asians, which was set here in Singapore. And it’s no wonder. Because Singapore has about 184,000 millionaires,
making it truly the land of the crazy rich. That’s great news. But Singapore also has a fairly high rate of inequality,
compared with other developed countries. Let’s look at the Gini coefficient, which
is a scale used to calculate inequality, with zero being the most
equal and one being the least. Singapore’s Gini coefficient, after accounting
for taxes and transfers, was 0.356 in 2017. That was worse than countries like the
United Kingdom, Japan, Korea and Germany, although it fared better than
some, like the United States. Is that number really that bad? That question had books
like this flying off the shelves. A think tank ignited public debate on the divide
in social classes, after it found that on average, Singaporeans who live in public housing have fewer
than one friend who lives in private housing. The government has called the issue
of inequality a national priority, but it remains to be seen if it is a
problem that can be tackled effectively. Hi everyone, it's Xin En.
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People try to claim Singapore is a Libertarian paradise? Did anyone tell them about the anti-nepotism laws and the hyper vigilant law enforcement for the smallest of infractions?
I should probably say that I've seen Libertarians use Switzerland's health care system as an example of private health care working better than single payer when their health care system is still regulated and subsidized (basically being moreorless a better version of the Affordable Care Act)
Most of the land and houses belongs to the government and they have a lot of government companies there, and they used to whip people for spitting on the street. No quite libertarian or maybe it is.
r/neoliberal creaming themselves in the corner.
WTF? Singapore, where you may be arrested for spitting on the sidewalk, is a libertarian paradise?
Good ports and a location right in the middle of the busiest shipping lanes in the world might have had something to do with it.
Government policies help, but just as with real estate: location, location, location.