Why I wont stay in Singapore for my retirement?

1. Its a rat race here. Tiring. Singapore is now known as a country with high unhappiness index. I will say there is some truth in it because people are chasing for material wealth and they have no other alternative to fall back on. Singaporean will need to worry from cradle to grave.

2. The place is too small. Crowded, congested and feels like a cage. By 2030 Singapore will have 7 million population. An increase of 1 million per decade. Sigh if only Singapore is a much larger country then it will truly be the Switz of Asia.

3. Cost of ownership of a car is too expensive. Ridiculous. Besides wealth gap between the rich and poor is widening. Singapore needs to attract the rich and they cant tax them highly since this group is very mobile and can shift their money to where it will give them the highest benefit. Only the middle class and the poor class will be squeezed.

4. Its artificial landscaping. Nothing much is natural here.

5. Limited choice. Some feels that you can get many types of food here in Singapore. Majority is just a repetition. Taste the same. Thats the same for the shopping complex. The chances of picking something that taste good is low since majority of the stall quality is bad. People might eat at that stall out of convinience ie short queue. Ask someone with a car, they can drive to which ever place that offer the most delicious food. Thats what I call competition. In singapore context if u want to survive in a food court, you must be cheap and the people will forgive u if the taste is so so.

6. Its kind of boring staying in the island since where ever you go it looks and feel pretty much the same. I would prefer driving to Malaysia across the different states and different tourism spot albeit being less develop as compared to singapore. I guess thats the charm of Malaysia.

7. People over here is more adventurous or less adventurous depends on how u see it. They travel more than their counterpart in ASEAN so involved in more activities. However they will read up as much as possible about that place ie how to get there and plan to the max leaving nothing much for spontaneous response. If you are truly adventurous you will plan 50% and leave the rest to take care of itself. Thats the idea of fun when u cant expect what is coming. I am a very flexible person and sometimes the trip can just come in a few days notice. Pack your bags and go. I guess being a small place, a lot of the things can be planned since you expect to be in control of everything. However, common sense will tell u that if the country is big a lot of things are beyond your control, leave it to your common sense, instinct and the general culture of how daily activities are normally conducted.

8. Like MM Lee said Singapore can only survive if it can become what its neighbour are not. Thats the only advantage that will ensure it's survival. However as any econs student will tell u the law of diminishing return. Once you are developed, it takes more money to milk the same amount of growth hence if the people here need to improve it productivity every year, either they work more for the same pay, work the same with less pay or work more with more pay. So the idea is work and work and work. Everyone needs rest and I hope everyone can get their well deserve 8 hours of rest. Singapore will always try to increase its population since it will create demand. Another reason is the only resources singapore has is human. If singapore has natural resources, you might see singapore today behaving more like brunei ie keep its population down and its people will have a very high gdp per capita. Another way to have very high gdp per capita is to develop your own high tech industry and become a tech leader in that industry. The problem is Singapore has not developed to such a stage yet. Imagine in 40 years it move from 3rd world to the 1st world. The population is seeing changes happening at such high speed but the people could not absorb so much in one generation.

9. Singapore claims that it is a diversified country but many things in singapore is just having a plain flavour. Not much alternative view in politics, straight jacket way of thinking ie NUTS, not much variety in the courses in the university due to limited demand in the industry, why should singapore limit the use of dialects? It is draconian in this era of globalisation and in a free economy- the market will take care of itself, majority will just stick to the tried and tested model. Thats why Singapore try to liberalise its industry to get the foreigner to think out of the box and introduce new innovative services.

10. I prefer the old generation of politicians. They have a bigger picture and more ambitiuos. To them there are endless possibilities. What is stopping a merger of Singapore with other countries? But no one dares to say it, cause they might think people will laugh at the remark. People who do not dream will never achieve greatness. Only those who seize the opportunity at the time of change will be rewarded handsomely. The newer generation are always bog down by the nuturing of the state. Under a big country system of politics, most of the new politicians are not well equipped for the task of doing a mass campaigning like what MM did when he campaign for a Malaysian Malaysia throughout the country. He has the charisma but I cant say the same for the new generation of leaders in Singapore capable of giving a ceramah that will raise the spirit of the people the way Anwar Ibrahim did during his election campaigns. Things in Singapore is pretty simplified, hence the population will think in a simple way. Ask any PRC if their country is simple i can bet they will say no. Singapore efficienct system might one day become its bane. 40 years of nationhood has produce a different generation with different emphasis. When a distruption happen unexpectedly, one need to dig deep into the reserve to get out of a difficult situation. To dig deep one must have a deep well in the first place. Mahathir manage to steer Malaysia out of the 1997 financial crisis which gave him sleepless nites.