On Thu, 4 Dec 1997, J. Lasser wrote:
And Singapore survives quite well being a totalitarian capitalist society. Sure, you can pick nits and claim that Singapore's not entirely capitalist, but it's more capitalist than this country and certainly less free, too.
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,266,00.html
In some ways, Singaporeans are more free than U.S. citizens. Income taxes and sales taxes are lower. Prostitution is legal. The government does not impose rules on whom private landlords can and can't rent to. Unlike some cities in the states, Singapore has no curfews. Being able to walk outside safely at night in any area of the city, even the poor excuse for the city's red light district, has its attractions.
-Declan
I lived and worked in Singapore for 8 years. Singapore is not what I call a free society. Their system has many advantages, you are pretty much free to make money providing you are doing so in an area where the government has no interest. The Singapore government runs many enterprises and if you happen to be their competition they will tear you apart to get rid of the competition. The Singaporean government tends to cater to the multinational corporations, who were their earlier ticket to economic prosperity, and don't do a lot to encourage local grown business other than to provide a suitable environment for business, which is good enough on its own. Singapore is a great place to do business, yours costs are predictable, something you can not say about the surrounding countries where corruption makes costs unpredictable. Singapore labor is reasonably priced, well-educated, reasonably trained, and well-disciplined - or at least they don't talk back or complain unless you try something really stupid. Singapore management is expensive, well-educated, but not quite as versatile as westerners. Singapore is a social experiment, a group (read PAP) has gained control and decided to mold the society into something different than it was. This is probably a good thing as in the 50s Singapore was a cesspool, in many ways. The story goes that you could smell Singapore 200 miles out, in an airplane. Everything that Singapore is today is what it was not in the 50s. The educational system has been engineered to produce the maximum number of worker units. Being a small country with limited resources (with labor being the main exportable resource) they could not afford to have an educational system which allowed some potential worker units to drop-out. Compare this against the American system where you are free to succeed, or free to fail, the choice is basically given to the citizen. In Singapore this is not how it works, the blinders are installed early, you are not permitted to fail to become a good productive member of the society. In Singapore you are free, as long as you are a good productive member of the society. Try talking back and complaining about the system and see where that gets you? I think they call it Woodbridge. This social engineering may be a good thing. Look at the benefits obtained by Singapore. In the current economic meltdown in SE Asia Singapore is only threatened with lower growth. The people are happy and they love their country and government, to the average Singaporean the government can do no wrong. Most Western governments would love to be in the same position. There are costs associated with an engineered society of this type. Elder Statesman Lee, he went by Harry Lee before he learned Mandarin, is always ranting about all the good genetics being wasted as there is a large number of educated women who have not married and therefore are not able to reproduce. Harry has been ranting about this for more than 10 years. In a nutshell certain segments of the population have lost their ability to mate. The Singapore government has initiated a program to help educated Singaporeans find mates. Great system, economic prosperity, but what am I supposed to do with this thing... Don't forget the other good points, no guns or bullets, color copiers are (were?) restricted, all media controlled by the government (even Time magazine was banned), mandatory savings program (CPF), National Service, and the government attitude of those that are not with us are against us. Also, don't forget that the Singaporean government has brought the Big Brother concept to reality. SingMonger