Reader Bo says:
I believe this is a case of 3 blind mice. The author of the article “15 Reasons Why Singapore Is Better Than Australia ” has probably not been analyzing both countries in an unbiased perspective.
I’ve been living in both countries for over 7 years each. Being able to experience both countries in depth, allow me to give a testimonial that is more accurate and unbiased.
Both countries have their pros and cons. I wouldn’t lean toward any of them. For example, I agree that Singapore is in the heart of the Asia growth and would be an advantage from economical point of view. However, it is still constrain by the size which will create some social issue of over-crowded population, higher stress level, over competitiveness, scarcity mindset, etc. These are the by-product of a high growth country, the people has to be able to catch up with the pace or be left behind. Unfortunately, majority of people are not able to catch up and developed a defense mechanism which is known as ‘kiasuism’. There is no right or wrong, it’s just how it evolves and whether we can live with it.
When the author discuss about the property growth, I’ve seen the property in Melbourne grow from 300K to 450K in less than 5 years. Base on historical data, the property double up every 10 years. In saying that, Singapore has got it’s good run for the pass few years. That’s how it created so many millionaires.
CPF and Superannuation is an idea to help people to save so that they will be able to survive through old age. It is a good idea for people who doesn’t know how to plan for their future and depending on government to plan for them, as any plan is better than no plan. But everyone should be responsible for their own finances, no matter where they live.
As for safety, every country has got it’s fair share of problem. The sheer size of Australia is already a challenge to maintain the coverage of safety, transport, network, etc. Given that Singapore is smaller than the smallest state in Australia (Tasmania), coverage is comparatively easier to deal with.
War in Singapore? I don’t even think the government will allow that to happen anywhere near Singapore. War in this era is not by brute force, in fact we’ve just
experienced a war in the stock market. Military strength are for the industrial age.
However, there is one unchanged fact that we cannot change the geographic location of a country. So we’re given a choice between hot and humid of Singapore and a range of tropical, sub-tropical and cool climate of Australia. Personally, I prefer the cool and dry instead of sweaty and hot climate. And I do enjoy snow in winter and fallen leaves in autumn, the ever changing picture of nature.
Talking about dangerous animal, I think this should be the least of our worries. After all, WE ARE the most dangerous species in the planet.
I hope my 2 cents worth of opinion will provide a better view of the world and not just 2 countries.
PS: This comment is found here.
Well, at the least, the Australians are not taken to the cleaners to see the World Cup, like in Singapore, where the Telcons under the approval of the autorities are chargining exhorbitant rates for Singapore to view the World Cup?
It’s free in Australia.
Australia has political freedom and freedom of speech, whereas we in Singapore don’t. Our system is controlled by the ruling party and becos it has become so strong, it started implementing policies to its advantages but at the expense of the native citizens. Eg. the over-influx of foreign workers to push up GDP, leading to housing, transport and other problems. This is bad ! The statistics are tweaked too !
Maybe we need to compare Spore to Australian cities ..Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane. Of course the cost of living in these Aussie cities is lower than Spore, they have a minimum wage in par with the cost of living. But Spore public transport is better, but to own a car is cheaper in Aussie cities. But every cities have its own economy structure, do your homework and move forward from there..