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Joel Ng's avatar

Always enjoy TWS articles, and love this one in particular. It's a hard truth, but it's an argument that has to be made.

Other commenters have distilled your very thoughtful article down to "If you feel Singapore is too expensive for you, leave". That's way too simplistic, and IMO, not what you're saying at all. My takeaway from your article is:

- Life in cities is expensive

- As an island city-state we can't expand out into the hinterland to give our citizens cheaper living options, because no such hinterland exists.

- But as individuals, we can choose to make an informed choice between competing to exploit the many economic opportunities here, or migrate to the "sort-of" hinterland (the rest of SEA) and enjoying a slower pace of life but with maybe a lower standard of living.

Which is more or less the same takeaway I see in most of the TWS articles I've read - "This is the economic/financial reality, hence this is the trade-off, decide for yourself what is best for you". You're not telling people who can't afford it to leave the country; you're simply pointing out that because of our unique situation as a prosperous island city-state, moving out of Singapore can sometimes make sense, just as people in other countries move out of large cities to the suburbs to enjoy a lower cost of living. It's certainly not for everyone, but you're trying to introduce Singaporeans to a different point of view, one that is very common among city-dwellers in larger countries (and the minority of Singaporeans who have made the move overseas and found that it works for them). You clearly state that if anyone wants to get out of this "rat race", there is an alternative, admittedly one that is not without trade-offs. Thank you for having the courage to share this perspective, knowing full well that you would catch a lot of flak for doing so.

Can I say that I just LOVE the fact that you took the effort to superimpose Singapore's outline on top of maps of major cities and measure everything properly and make sure it's to scale! I've had the privilege of travelling to London and New York for work a couple of times, and I'm always mind-boggled by the size of these megalopolises - can't wrap my head around the fact that several Singapores can fit into some major cities, and those cities are further surrounded by endless suburbs, minor towns and farmland. It's a miracle that we can hold our own as a nation and even thrive in a world filled with so many other larger countries. Your maps make that point better than words could.

It's great that you mention our ageing population and the declining size of our workforce - these are the driving factors behind our openness to foreign talent and capital. We simply cannot afford to cut ourselves off from the rest of world as that means being cut off from new ideas and technologies as well - that would spell inevitable economic decline and a "shrinking of the pie" for all. I would love to live in an alternate universe where Singapore's birth rate was 2.1 and we were much less dependent on foreign talent and capital, but sadly that's a much more complex problem and so we don't live in that reality. To me, every rich foreigner that comes in is another one we can tax more money from to fund our uncles and aunties' health care in their golden years.

I for one don't want to see any native-born Singaporean decide that our home has become too expensive and decide to move out. Isn't the ideal reaction to incoming "foreign talent" to retrain/upskill ourselves for the new, higher-paying jobs on offer, so that we can show anyone who comes in that they're not so talented after all ("anything you can do, I can do better" attitude). We have to take advantage of our world-class universities and polytechnics, government support and the ever-increasing reservoir of free/next-to-free online courses on the Internet. It takes time and effort, but I don't believe that all the foreigners coming in have such special skills that we can't replicate in ourselves. The need to retrain and switch careers in this fast-moving, technology-disrupting global economy we lived in is a point you at TWS have made many times in the past, and it's something that all us TWS readers need to take to heart (and with Singapore unemployment at a 15-year low of 1.8%, it's something that will definitely pay dividends).

Thanks again for your courage in putting out this inconvenient truth.

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Mel K's avatar

Always a fan of your perspectives, but Singapore IS in a unique position because we are currently the only city-state to experience this. Comparing it to big cities like London and Paris doesn't really justify because as mentioned, their locals have other cities to rely on, and we do not. Sweeping that under the rug for neutrality in this article is of poor taste.

Take Hong Kong for example, their housing crisis and cost of living started stabalising after the merger with China. Unfortunately for us, we don't have any big bro backing us.

Moblity is a privilege for Singaporeans, it's not that easy for SG passport to move overseas. Agree that it shouldn't be taboo, but leaving Singapore today has a whole set of consequences that someone who did it 10 years ago didn't have. Leaving SG now means the possibility of never being able to afford our cost of living, our public housing, and losing our place as citizens. It has far greater negatives than positives, because moving is for survival and not some "hehe living overseas is fun!" trope.

Take it from a Singaporean that moved, I wish I can be in SG long-term. But the costs are just not viable, so I have to let my own country go. And if that is not sad I don't know what is.

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