3 ms·

I would tend to agree with you about China, but Singapore? Citation needed.

lionhearted 16y ago
I'll back that up from firsthand experience - it's completely clean, completely safe, with friendly, helpful and quick civil servants, perfect order, with the exception of drugs you're left alone to do almost whatever you want within reason, the quality of life is extremely high, an encouraging culture that values business, great infrastructure, high levels of technology and entrepreneurship, pretty good research, pretty good education, low bureaucracy, low taxes, low red tape, and the government programs they do have run really well and efficiently. Singapore might indeed be the best governed place in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore
- eru 16y ago
  How does it compare to Hong Kong, and, say, Switzerland?
  - lionhearted 16y ago
    Hong Kong's also well governed, but it's much dirtier and slightly less safe (though still quite safe compared to other places). HK infrastructure is top notch, government/business relations are good, and HK and China currently have good relations so that's an advantage. I'll give a slight edge to Singapore, but they're both fine places in Asia. I haven't been to Switzerland, but the general word I hear is that it's well governed, with beautiful scenery, and is a dreadfully boring place for young people ;)
    - eru 16y ago
      I have been to Switzerland, but not Singapore or Hong Kong. I found it quite interesting, and I am only 24, now, and was younger then still. One notable thing about the Swiss political system is, that in general each level of government spends as much as it earns in taxes. I.e. there are no huge transfers between federal and state (=Canton) level.
- potatolicious 16y ago
  > "it's completely clean, completely safe, with friendly, helpful and quick civil servants, perfect order" Shivers of "Brave New World" ran down my spine as I read this sentence. It's safe, clean, and orderly because it's incredibly conservative and repressive - culturally and politically. I mean come on, can you seriously buy that only a single person stepped forth to run for the highest office of the land? Or that a single party has 97.6% representation in parliament? IMHO this is too high of a price to pay. This is a fine example of a place that has thrown away the heterogeneity of life, the celebration of differences and quirks, in exchange for strictly enforced harmony. No thanks - some things are worth the dirt and grime, the chaos of disagreement and protest. You mentioned Hong Kong in another post - I'd much rather explore Hong Kong's system than Singapore's. It's dirtier, grimier, but much more human and IMHO real. It's free market almost to a fault, and is IMHO a pretty damn good example of libertarianism as a success rather than Singapore's story of centralized one-party rule. Your idea of "well governed" seems to have an awful lot to do with lacking in things that ruffle feathers and make people uncomfortable. IMHO the mark of an enlightened society and people is its ability to integrate individualism and inevitable disagreements into the core of how its society functions - rather than seek to squash all semblance of it in exchange for artificial harmony. [edit] I also find it somewhat distasteful that we harp on China for its human rights abuses, its repressive single-party rule, and its incredibly socially conservative policies... yet we give Singapore a free pass. I suppose all of the above is okay as long as quality of life is high, economy is good, and everything gleaming and spotlessly clean.
  - rubashov 16y ago
    Pick a metric and singapore probably wins. They have a functioning universal healthcare system based on vouchers. Their government is cheap, being remarkably cheap and effective on any GDP based measure. They have an effective but cheap military. They have a working immigration system that serves the citizenry. I could go on. That you do not like Singaporean society is neither here nor there, and actually rather separate from the government. Your (presumably hippy) sensibilities might actually appreciate it's multi-ethnic and fairly harmonious. Lee Kuan Yew will go down as one the great men of the 20th century.
  - lionhearted 16y ago

I'll back that up from firsthand experience - it's completely clean, completely safe, with friendly, helpful and quick civil servants, perfect order, with the exception of drugs you're left alone to do almost whatever you want within reason, the quality of life is extremely high, an encouraging culture that values business, great infrastructure, high levels of technology and entrepreneurship, pretty good research, pretty good education, low bureaucracy, low taxes, low red tape, and the government programs they do have run really well and efficiently. Singapore might indeed be the best governed place in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore

eru 16y ago
How does it compare to Hong Kong, and, say, Switzerland?
- lionhearted 16y ago
  Hong Kong's also well governed, but it's much dirtier and slightly less safe (though still quite safe compared to other places). HK infrastructure is top notch, government/business relations are good, and HK and China currently have good relations so that's an advantage. I'll give a slight edge to Singapore, but they're both fine places in Asia. I haven't been to Switzerland, but the general word I hear is that it's well governed, with beautiful scenery, and is a dreadfully boring place for young people ;)
  - eru 16y ago
    I have been to Switzerland, but not Singapore or Hong Kong. I found it quite interesting, and I am only 24, now, and was younger then still. One notable thing about the Swiss political system is, that in general each level of government spends as much as it earns in taxes. I.e. there are no huge transfers between federal and state (=Canton) level.
potatolicious 16y ago
> "it's completely clean, completely safe, with friendly, helpful and quick civil servants, perfect order" Shivers of "Brave New World" ran down my spine as I read this sentence. It's safe, clean, and orderly because it's incredibly conservative and repressive - culturally and politically. I mean come on, can you seriously buy that only a single person stepped forth to run for the highest office of the land? Or that a single party has 97.6% representation in parliament? IMHO this is too high of a price to pay. This is a fine example of a place that has thrown away the heterogeneity of life, the celebration of differences and quirks, in exchange for strictly enforced harmony. No thanks - some things are worth the dirt and grime, the chaos of disagreement and protest. You mentioned Hong Kong in another post - I'd much rather explore Hong Kong's system than Singapore's. It's dirtier, grimier, but much more human and IMHO real. It's free market almost to a fault, and is IMHO a pretty damn good example of libertarianism as a success rather than Singapore's story of centralized one-party rule. Your idea of "well governed" seems to have an awful lot to do with lacking in things that ruffle feathers and make people uncomfortable. IMHO the mark of an enlightened society and people is its ability to integrate individualism and inevitable disagreements into the core of how its society functions - rather than seek to squash all semblance of it in exchange for artificial harmony. [edit] I also find it somewhat distasteful that we harp on China for its human rights abuses, its repressive single-party rule, and its incredibly socially conservative policies... yet we give Singapore a free pass. I suppose all of the above is okay as long as quality of life is high, economy is good, and everything gleaming and spotlessly clean.
- rubashov 16y ago
  Pick a metric and singapore probably wins. They have a functioning universal healthcare system based on vouchers. Their government is cheap, being remarkably cheap and effective on any GDP based measure. They have an effective but cheap military. They have a working immigration system that serves the citizenry. I could go on. That you do not like Singaporean society is neither here nor there, and actually rather separate from the government. Your (presumably hippy) sensibilities might actually appreciate it's multi-ethnic and fairly harmonious. Lee Kuan Yew will go down as one the great men of the 20th century.
- lionhearted 16y ago