how things work in Singapore

We met up with some friends in Singapore a few days ago, and sampled a wide variety of Singaporean dishes at the Food Republic in Vivo City, one of the newest and biggest malls in Singapore. Afterwards we retired to a nearby coffee shop to catch up and chat.

It was really interesting talking to Singaporeans about Singapore. Actually, one isn't even a native Singaporean; he grew up in South Africa and only moved about three years ago. Perhaps as a result of years of Johannesburg living, he seems to appreciate the extreme order (and personal safety) in Singapore even more than the native Singaporeans.

The government obviously plays quite a large role in shaping people's everyday lives, but Singaporeans don't seem to mind; they accept minor inconveniences as the cost of a high standard of living. The general sentiment seems to be that the government is run by the best and the brightest and "they know best".

Some interesting tidbits:
- Singapore is opening a casino soon, but they will charge 200 SGD admission for any non-foreign customers. This is likely to be a huge deterrent for the local population and is intended to prevent most gambling-related societal problems.
- Singapore's income taxes are extremely low (7%) and there are no property taxes. We spent several minutes explaining the concept of property taxes to them; at first he thought we were talking about a tax charged during the property transaction itself. As a result, Singaporeans have a huge amount of disposable income. However, they seem not to spend much of it; they have a very high savings rate. Empirically we've observed many people walking around in malls but not many people were actually in the stores buying things. People seem to be mostly using the malls to get from place to place in air conditioned comfort.
- Since they have a lot of cash, people in Singapore often buy cars and even houses outright. Also, the rate of home ownership is extremely high; I didn't hear an exact number but as they both said, "everyone we know" owns a home. Also, "government subsidized housing" has a whole different connotation in Singapore; since private housing is much more expensive (not only to buy, but to maintain), about 80% of owned homes are subsidized.
- Borrowing money is much less common than in the US. This probably helped Singapore through the recent recession; in fact many Asian investors are now snapping up prime commercial real estate in New York, London, and Sydney, since the values are depressed and they have the necessary cash in hand. Our friends were very confused about the notion of borrowing money on purpose (i.e. for a car loan) to "establish good credit". They argued (and I personally agree) that not ever having had to borrow money should be counted as a plus, not a minus, for a potential borrower.
- Singapore, like many Asian countries, is having a population crisis. To encourage couples to have children, the government has implemented substantial reductions to income taxes for couples with children. In fact, a couple with three children ends up paying no income tax at all. This policy was only recently implemented so it's hard to anticipate the long term effect, but it does not seem to be working as well as expected, as of yet.