I pick up this smattering of notes, on the back of finishing of a macro view of the evolving world order. What next but to write about a place a bit closer to home?
A topic that still has a lingering interest, having worked in a government agency and all; and a continuation of where I last left off.
Since then, I’ve written fairly broadly, especially around my interests in Universal Frameworks and principled views on seemingly complex or abstract topics.
Quick Recap and the Structural Challenges
Singapores future was destined to be one of corralling it’s restrictions, boundaries and opportunities. Developing spaces to build competitive advantages, with only manpower as its main resource, especially if competing countries are not able to get their houses (namely institutions) in order.
Foundations have been set in all areas of good governance and institutional power: general peace and security, efforts for conformance to national pride and identity, but with overlorded avenues for freedom in a secular, pluralistic society.
From a socio-economic perspective, as with all nations, Singapore’s acute challenge is the inevitable balance to being (supremely) open to the global competitive stage, whilst needing to protect its domestic capacity for those who cannot make it. As written in the past post on the inequal stratification of societies contextualised against global economic forces here. There will always remain an imbued and necessary inequality across different strata of societies which must be managed to preserve the hard-fought institutions.
And those who can and cannot make it is an important concept: Singapore must manage this highly individual and personal thing - there are no other factors to rely on for production, but the energy, emotions and well being of its constituent citizens (who also happen to be voters).
From a business perspective (as I raise the importance of entrepeneurship later), the usual suspects linger: With a limited time (impatient runway, relative to larger funded economies) to incubate and nuture champions; and a commensurate lower appetite for risk and sorely lacking in consumer market and customer bases.
I am concerned on the rent economy (starting with the common rent of land and real estate), which affects both strata of the economy - industrial land and power making any and all exports immensely difficult to scale; while also facing rocketing costs of food (I loathe to think how much of the cost of a burger outside goes into rent and overheads. I’ve been made aware that the cost of ingrdients in some chains can even be less than 10%). This needs to be managed sustainably for the long run.
Responsiveness and nimblness, especially as a small country is key too, but the capacity for change is a diminishing resource. There is more and more to lose as a developing economy matures.
These are not challenges to be solved per se, but to be managed carefully with raw political determination and will.
I was also reminded of a talk (which i did not attend, but heard aobut) about the “four highs” from a Managing Director of a government agency - first by acknowledging the awareness and conscientiousness around Singapaore’s High Cost, but also espousing the merits of Singapore’s High Tech, High Touch and High Trust possibilities. It is unclear though, how this will pan out in the future.
But I conclude this section, - it’s not about the exam grades, it’s about seeing your kid succeed in his/her own way, on their own terms - for the happiness of all.
Musings on the Population Crises
On population: I maintain some sense of career eugenics: with a forced approach for 1 parent on full time salaried job (professionalisation and structure). 2nd partner on a freelance economy type of job (flexibility and generalisation). Both are necessary for a competitive economy.
Concentration and Diffusion of Talent
I’ve also been rather fond of the general trend (globally) of white collar workers or graduates going back to outdated industries like agriculture. As inheritance but equally digital and sustainability opportunities take hold - Search funds rejuvenating old companies. It is a waste for these to end.
A proxy for this would be implementing the spillover of globally competitive talent into domestic industries. Of course, this fights the natural order of things, and there must be some policy in place - once again perhaps by manipula - guiding the intrinsic motivations.
Efforts for a quicker time to market is in the best interests for both startups and Singapore as a whole.
Towards a “Parented” Economy
It is a policymaker’s dream, and I colour this with an assumed lens of parenting, to be able to offer every citizen the ability to be secure and to achieve. Comfortable and free, in the sense of being: Free from judgement. Free from oppression, and Free to be good and honest. It is difficult then to only hope and note intervene, that the through the nurturing of confidence and the ability in the pursuit of excellence, a natural order will take place to benefit the whole in the long run.
I wasn’t convinced about some of the recent driving efforts (largely financial) to bring in more family offices (and at a time, Crypto Bros) into Singapore as these erred on the inherent corruptibility and moral-lessness of cash. It served to make already wealthy wealth managers richer and predatory snakeoil salesmen. These are the people and culture that one should stay away from in the long term. Its a short term tactic - an easy win in the absence of better options as some trends prevail.
But some efforts to drive deep tech into commercialisation and applications resonate closely with me, now being in the field and seeing possibilities (in fact, I’m fairly puzzled what on earth the public national science agency has actually been doing for most of its life).
The future of Singapore in honest, unique and relentless entrepreneurship - the latter being one pathway to exploit the current paradigm of Industrial, Democratic Capitalism.
Perhaps it needs an unfettered ascension to freedom (away from societal pressures); the pursuit of excellence, intrinsic and not forced; and directing the energy of man into the pursuit of entrepreneurship.
Concluding Thoughts
Does it still hold up in a fragmented, volatile and evolving world world order?
I hope so - the personification of country as child, and its management would necessitate a transcendence of the human condition at a national level - to go beyond the belief in paper merits, but to trust and belief in the raw power of human innovation and social benefit.
And highly unlikely to enable it through the relinquishing of overt, technocratic control. Emotionally already difficult, impossible to predict, and politically unjustifiable.