The world economy has never done better in absolute terms. I'm not sure where all those hard times are that I keep hearing about year after year, virtually independent of how well the economies are actually doing.
It's a K-shaped economy, after all. From the way you talk, you seem to be upper class. Usually Singapore is centered on elite schools and technology for certain families, and just from the fact that you can go into the English-speaking and IT industries, it seems to me—based on this conversation—that you're basically upper class. You're probably connected to Lee Kuan Yew's family. Singapore itself is a standard English-speaking country, and there are many Chinese Singaporeans, but even so, considering the basic amount of education needed to learn IT skills in Asia, you're probably upper class.
Then it makes sense that you wouldn't feel it. In fact, because it's a K-shaped economy, the bosses and businesspeople I meet think the business climate is good. But separately from that, for ordinary people who are the actual consumers, it's hard to make a living.
My only connection to the Lee family is that in 2023 my daughter had the opportunity to shoot Lee Hsien Loong, but didn't pull the trigger. [0]
> In fact, because it's a K-shaped economy, the bosses and businesspeople I meet think the business climate is good. But separately from that, for ordinary people who are the actual consumers, it's hard to make a living.
If you need to know, I'm doing quite well. I emigrated to Singapore on an employment pass. No family wealth. We have lots of well off people in Singapore. Many, many more than could plausible claim to have connections to the Lee family.
> Singapore itself is a standard English-speaking country, and there are many Chinese Singaporeans, but even so, considering the basic amount of education needed to learn IT skills in Asia, you're probably upper class.
I'm not sure what you are trying to say? Around three quarters of the population is ethnically Chinese, and they are doing quite well. When people want to complain about Singapore and inequality, they usually complain about the lot of the migrant workers.
[0] Mr Lee showed up as a surprise guest at a local community festival and passed within two metres of us. At the moment, my daughter was playing a carnival game that involved a nerf gun.
Your figures show that Singapore has high output and a tight labour market. They don't by themselves tell us how the gains are distributed or whether median households face affordability pressure.
Here's my view. There are many points where the current economy doesn't feel all that good to me.
Because of you, I got curious and looked into it, and Singapore's income has risen, but consumer prices and especially housing asset prices have also risen sharply.
And this is only Singapore being strong in macroeconomics and export employment; I don't think this means the global economy is good.
Strictly speaking, I think this is because of our particular situation and the fact that we are knowledge workers. Of course, I'm not saying you're wrong. In your situation, you're right, but I think my view is more general. In other words, I don't think it's a case of the global economic situation being good, nor is it easy to say that China's economic situation is booming. I have Chinese friends, and while I don't know China as well as you do, since you're ethnically Chinese, I do know that the number of people who can leave China for abroad is very small in class terms, and I can also argue that China's statistics do not indicate such a good economic situation.
So I actually wanted to make a narrower point initially, but that got widened as I was arguing:
The narrower point is that eg 2008 or 2020 were genuinely tough for the global economy (and for many local economies). But I hear people complaining about 'hard times' all the time, even when things are going rather well.
I wasn't trying to make an argument about times being hard or easy in some absolute sense, just that you can't have harder than average times all the time.
> Because of you, I got curious and looked into it, and Singapore's income has risen, but consumer prices and especially housing asset prices have also risen sharply.
I suspect housing asset prices rose as a consequences of incomes rising: people have more money to bid up real estate.
