As usual it was bubble-blowing by the Fed that resulted in what you see above. Totally avoidable, but hey - Alan Greenspan wanted to please his masters on Wall Street. What are a few foreclosures, bankruptcies, and suicides next to that?
It is an apples to oranges discussion insofar as Singapore has 5 million people instead of 330 million. It also doesnt share thousands of miles of borders with a third world country (as well as Mexico). They have also been the single largest beneficiary in of the migration of the Asian financial business from Tokyo due to tax arbitrage that the Japanese cannot compete with.
On the other hand, Singapore is the most probably the most racially diverse country on the planet, and yet they seem to suffer little of the diversity related problems that America does. Their minority underclasses get no gimmedats, nor are they taught to expect them. As a culture they also are better mannered than most Americans (which is hard to believe seeing as most of them are Chinese), because somewhere along the line rugged American "individualism" became synonymous with not giving a fuck about anybody else. Their government also acts with a longer term plan for the country, rather than their elected officials being whores on the take for people anybody with enough money who wants to rape the country for everything its worth.
This. Democracy assumes that people are capable of governing themselves, rather than simply voting for whoever promises them the most gimmedats. OTOH, the problem with a benevolent dictator is that he can be followed by a non-benevolent one.
1) We're not living in the 5th century. The American mentality is to cling to past idealism. If it worked hundreds of years ago, then Americans want to stick with it today, even if the circumstances are different. That's why so many American political debates talk about "Our founding fathers said ____", even though that shit happened hundreds of years ago, when we had slavery, women couldn't vote, and were operating with candles & muskets, not internet & nuclear weapons.
2) The entire world doesn't think that way. Because of globalization, 200 countries around the world are competing against each other. Singapore & Monaco do NOT spend energy encouraging other countries to follow in their footsteps.
If country "A" is bankrupting itself creating innovation that benefits the world, why should country "B" stop them?
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". - Napoleon Bonaparte
Well look at experiments like the LHC and other big expensive research projects that have no immediate profit in sight. Do you honestly think a government that focuses on results only would ever allow such a thing to go ahead?
Posted 7/5/2012 11:07 am
Singapore is a beneficiary of the largesse of bigger nations who let it use the tech they developed. Singapore has invented jack shit and is just a grubby little container port.
reasonable summary apart from the comment about third world countries; you've presumably forgotten the teaming masses of Indonesia, third world to the core, who all want that which Singapore provides and would swim ashore from their leaky boats in a hearbeat
A several thousand mile long land border and an easily defendable ocean border are not the same thing.
Also, immigration is insane strict here. You should see the hoops they made me jump through to get my employment pass. They wont be giving out amnesty to any brown fucker who can swim across anytime soon.
USA is 60% white, 13% black, 16% hispanic, 6% asian.
Singapore is certainly ethnically diverse (73% Chinese, then some Malay, Indian, etc), but it does not have the racial diversity that USA has.
Singapore has promoted the concept of "Asian values", and Chinese / Malay / Indians will have some common ground in tight knit families and minimal street crime.
But it would be nearly impossible to integrate black people into that same shared culture.
well, possibly true but then again you're not a wealthy Chinese family looking for cheap Indonesian nannies/ housemaids to look after your kids / cook / clean your house.
Why? Singapore doesn't provide welfare, food stamps, public housing, amnesty for illegal immigrants, discounted public university tuition for illegal immigrants, or anchor baby birthright citizenship.
USA provides all that, which makes USA a magnet for illegal 3rd world immigration.
Plus, USA refuses to crack down on illegal immigrants.
So from the perspective of a 3rd worlder..
- Sneaking into Singapore would be no reward, and all punishment.
- Sneaking into USA would be all reward, and no punishment.
Until very late in the 19th century, the idea that the state should fund research, other than military research, was completely unknown.
Every invention large and small, every advance in industrial and commercial technique before that point, and many after, was privately funded by individuals or businesses or whatever.
Steam power, canalisation, mass production of textiles, the railroad, cheap steel, industrial production of fertilisers, chemicals and dyestuffs, even occupational safety standards - all predate state involvement in research.
Sunnyvale Town Center rebuild was up close to a billion. Developer went bankrupt. One day all work was stopped except for the Target store that already had a tenant. Mostly vacant still.
It would have been better if they'd started a flea market and taco truck theme park.
