Book review on the history of modern Singapore (opens in new tab)

We're talking about different things here.

You're talking about non-Singaporean migrant workers, who are poor but not "destitute", since they have paid jobs, food and shelter.

I'm talking about the poorest Singaporeans, often unemployed and/or elderly who are entitled to meager but survivable benefits, including cash handouts and heavily subsidized housing. It's not an enviable life, and SG could and should do better, but neither is it "destitution" on the scale of street beggars in (say) India or Indonesia.

You raise the interesting question of why would someone travel long distances to live in terrible cramped conditions.

Without commenting on Singapore, many countries have no minimum wage without negative consequence. It can be substituted with strong unions or social programs. In fact minimum wage is kind of a blunt instrument. People often say that everyone should be paid a living wage, but a living wage for a single mom with four kids is much higher than a living wage for a highschooler who lives with his parents. A minimum wage high enough to guarantee the mom a living wage would almost certainly make illegal many job opportunities the highschooler would love to have. I would prefer the government guarantee everyone a dignified life rather than try to use the minimum wage (which fundamentally only affects working people, not everyone)

The unemployed (short or long term) with no assets or family assistance are entitled to ComCare subsidies, which are designed specifically to stop people from falling into destitution:

https://msf.gov.sg/Comcare/Pages/Short-to-Medium-Term-Assist...

https://msf.gov.sg/Comcare/Pages/Public-Assistance.aspx

Here's the BBC on what this looks like in practice:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26349689

Denmark has no minimum wage.

Overly broad and vague, but not that far off the mark. If you're a citizen or PR you are entitled to an HDB if your income isn't too high. If you can't afford to buy an HDB (with many gov't grants), you can rent an HDB. If you're really low income, the rent can be very low (ten's of SGD per month).

So basically if you're a SC/PR, you won't go without decent housing in Singapore. That's actually quite impressive for countries in SE Asia.

He was an overrated thug. What good he did (e.g. HDBs) was largely a result of arm twisting and fear - of domestic communists, and being smart enough to listen to Albert Winsemius (attracting foreign investment).

He's popular in the Western media because he treated foreign investors like kings. They're happy to trumpet the successes and sweep the uglier side under the carpet and indulge the cult of personality he built.

Singapore's geography, meanwhile, is not given nearly enough credit. It had probably the world's most strategically located deep water port and being a city state helps keep the government on its toes and avoid corruption (in stark contrast to, say, Brazil/Myanmar) :

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w19027/w190...

This is why a lot of its success is not really replicable elsewhere.

Thanks! Is this actually common knowledge in the UK (and US?)?

Accusations of high level corruption will see you bankrupted by libel lawsuits.

It's entirely possible that the ruling elite have nothing to hide but they hardly act like it.

Singapore doesn't have much "corruption", but we have:

- the highest-paid politicians in the world [1];

- political offices with poorly-defined job scopes [2]; and

- a track record of installing PAP (the dominant party) members in government-linked positions if they somehow fail to win an election [3].

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/21/20-highest-p...

[2] https://mothership.sg/2021/02/pritam-singh-cdc-mayors/

[3] https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/ntuc-reaffirms-support...

I find it hard to believe that a country that was (or maybe is) a transportation hub for drugs and still is a money laundry for the SE Asia, can be free of corruption.

If you believe that then you don’t know how the Singaporean government works