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Comment by not_a_moth | Hacker News Reader

Singapore's population is very conservative, e.g. live with parents until marry, homosexuality is illegal, a lot of pressure against interracial couples (my experience), and essentially a single, dominant media voice.

There is a militant approach to education which produces nice test results, but it doesn't produce young entrepreneurs, just conservative careers, helped by statutory hiring quotas. I don't think the Singapore model produces much innovation, they just really opened up to innovative foreign companies.

(Some reflections from my time living there)

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> they just really opened up to innovative foreign companies.

They also have a very important geographical position as a hub to many other Asian countries, and one of the few countries friendly to foreign investments in the area (even more so now that HK is going down).

> live with parents until marry

This is a culture thing, nothing to do with being conservative/liberal. Renting in Singapore is expensive, therefore people prefer to stay with parents until they can afford to buy their own HDB.

Actually you are not allowed to buy HDB (apart from very special exceptions) if you are not married. So one joke goes how to propose (marriage): you, ... you want to apply for HDB?

Has everything to do with conservative/liberal. Living with parents your whole life until marriage produces conservative non risk takers, and there is a conservative political policy behind it that prevents you from obtaining HBD housing until you marry.

I think it's really just more of the ruthless pragmatism that makes this place so efficient and a consequence of land scarcity. Housing is limited and leaving it up to the free market would exacerbate wealth inequality. Therefore the government steps in with subsidized housing, which almost by definition will have more demand than supply. Prioritizing young families makes sense as the birth rate is below replacement.

> homosexuality is illegal

And yet the gay bars do roaring trade waving their flags outside, no real surprise, they are far more fun than many alternatives.

We should be specific: homosexuality isn't illegal in Singapore.

Sex between men is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377A_of_the_Penal_Code...

You might find this interesting: https://youtu.be/LvBlzDz9ttM?t=846 Lee Kuan Yew's entertaining response on this exact question

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