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Yet another reason why I love Singapore: by law, the budget must be balanced over every parliamentary term. So, they never accumulate runaway debt. And that's b
by churchill 2y ago
Yet another reason why I love Singapore: by law, the budget must be balanced over every parliamentary term. So, they never accumulate runaway debt. And that's before you count the $2.5 trillion reserves they have across Temasek, GIC, CPF, and MAS. And that's for a country of just 6 million people.
Even the Arab petro-states that literally scoop money from the ground haven't saved that much! (Highest is Saudi Arabia with $1 trillion.)
Edit: in case you're wondering, no, there's no catch: Singapore has ultra-modern infrastructure, great healthcare, and they're enviable in every way.
- dave4420 2y agoWhat’s the penalty if their budget isn’t balanced, and who pays it?
- klyrs 2y agoCanings, probably. (yes, there is a bit of a catch, it turns out)
- tmn 2y agoThe catch is systemic competency
- churchill 2y agoMost Western countries can be described as systemically competent, from Norway to New Zealand but on a per capita rate, and given the hand Singapore has been dealt (tiny island, no resources, etc.), they're an outlier.
- sealeck 2y ago> Edit: in case you're wondering, no, there's no catch: Singapore has ultra-modern infrastructure, great healthcare, and they're enviable in every way. The catch is that a lot of the money comes from being a tax haven.
- churchill 2y agoSo, why hasn't any other tax haven replicated what they have? Countries like New Zealand can easily replicate their strategy, given their small relative population, stable governments, etc. So, why not?
- sealeck 2y ago> So, why hasn't any other tax haven replicated what they have? Luxembourg, Switzerland?