Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Singapore. It has its flaws like an extremely low birth rate and high competitiveness, but to some extent these are features of all modern Chinese civilization. I think high asset prices for long term secular reasons mean the housing market often works against poor and working class people, the government developing land for residential use and then leasing and selling it to most of the bottom 70% of the population in terms of income works well, while a private real estate market still exists for commercial property, rural property and housing for the wealthy. Singapore is essentially the world’s only high-functioning multicultural society, it’s the only place in the world where even Little India is largely clean and nice. It understands that while some racial spoils are inevitable, they have to be combined with extremely strict law enforcement and efforts to avoid ghettoes occupied solely by one tribe. I appreciate that extremely high salaries for senior officials attract higher quality people to the civil service and politics. Healthcare is both good and affordable as a percentage of GDP. Citizenship is quite hard to obtain, borders are strictly controlled, but wealthy and highly skilled foreigners are welcome to work there. Military service is mandatory, which helps discipline young men, brings together people from different backgrounds and inculcates a sense of shared national identity. There is no more competent current government, even though Singapore is certainly flawed.
Second place is Switzerland.
https://twitter.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1781083217333788959
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