Warning - Rant incoming - you may want to scroll now:

I was listening to the Motley Fool Podcast today with @Strawman and the discussion of Singapore being held up as a model of how a country can be successful.

I thought it would be worth noting a number of things that Singapore does that are integral to its financial and social success.

Overall Singapore is strongly Nationalistic, being 'pro-Singapore' is instilled from Childhood and is integrated into every part of society. For example, every Singaporean child sings the national anthem and makes the pledge every day. There are criminal penalties for denigrating Singapore, its institutions and its symbols. The penalties include corporal punishment, no burning the flag, calls to 'abolish Singapore' or throwing paint on statues and memorials.

Singapore was a hotbed of racial violence and crime prior to this project. Racial vilification , or 'promoting racial or social hostility' is also criminalised. No 'From the River to the Sea' protests would be tolerated in Singapore, nor would gluing yourself to roadways.

Foreigners including tourists, immigrants and migrant workers are deported for committing any criminal offences, and receive long and often permanent bans from re-entry. There are extremely limited rights to legal challenge, and no sight of activist judges. Even accidental and extremely minor infractions, such as re-entering the airport after exiting immigration when not scheduled to fly, can result in prosecution and prevention from re-entry.

Singapore is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and does not accept 'asylum seekers'. There is effectively no welfare or benefits for foreigners apart from some limited emergency health care provisions, certainly no free money, housing etc., etc.. Employers that use foreign labour are required to provide private health cover for their employees.

The gap between rich and poor in Singapore is between Singaporean Citizens and poor migrant workers. A large proportion of migrant workers are on tiny wages. Construction companies in Singapore are able to import large numbers, of predominantly Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and Indian, workers on tiny wages. The same goes for shipbuilding and other similar industries. Pretty sure we could make cars in Australia and fix our housing shortage and prices in Australia using a similar system. We could probably make the cheapest and best quality steel in the world too using a similar labour system and coal fired power. Cleaners, maids and factory workers are predominantly Filipinas. These workers have limited rights and conditions compared to Singaporean nationals.

Singapore could be summarized as 'Singapore for the benefit of Singapore and Singaporeans', pretty similar to the much maligned 'America First'.

I actually agree that Singapore has got most things right, but this is where I disagree with @Strawman, that the capitalist successes weren't planned. In fact every element of Singaporean society has been planned and enforced to ensure that success. Ideologies and activities that run counter to the best interests of Singapore overall are unapologetically and emphatically supressed.

Which brings me to one last bug-bear, the dogma continues to be, when it comes to Australian Industry, that if the industry could be done economically without assistance like tariffs etc., than it would be, and we should let it run. I'd like to see the same principle applied to the so-called 'green energy' industry. Does anyone really think that any of those companies would be progressing without the endless government subsidies? Some of them even said the quiet part out loud recently about windfarm investment, talking about uncertainty in government financial support. Compare this with oil and gas exploration, which continues despite endless legal challenges and general government f*ckery. I'll bet there is no equivalent government funded activist 'Environmental Defenders Office' in Singapore.

This nation has much deeper structural and ideological issues to address if it's going to be successful into the future.

Rant over (for now) = exhale.