sustainer.org
Singapore Leads the Good Life Under a Benevolent Dictator
Singapore has achieved the American dream, but not in the American way. It is a prosperous, clean city, with imposing skyscrapers and glittering shopping centers. The multinational corporations of the world are welcome here; you can buy any brand name you've ever heard of.
Just forty years ago Singapore was a war-battered British port on an island off the southern tip of Malaysia. It had a rapidly growing, poor, uneducated population living mostly in slums and houseboats. Singapore struggled along until 1965, when it became an independent nation with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in firm control.
In the next twenty years Singapore's economy grew eightfold. Average income per capita rose more than fourfold. The percentage of families living in poverty dropped to 0.3% (in the U.S. it is near 20%). Singaporeans' average life expectancy is now 71 years. No one is homeless. Population has stabilized.
To produce his economic miracle, Lee Kuan Yew has interfered with every aspect of Singaporean life. To control population growth he set up free family planning clinics. Then he mounted education campaigns ("Plan your family small") and decreed that women having third-or-more babies would get shorter maternity leave, higher hospital charges, and less income tax relief. There is a $5000 reward for mothers who agree to be sterilized after their second child. [ One mistake Singapore made, the guy should be granted this option, not imposed only on the women. ] Sterilized parents get top priority for public housing, and their children get into desirable schools.
...Lee now offers incentives to "educated mothers" to have three children or more.
Singapore requires all workers to save 25% of their salaries
------------------------------------------------------
Wow, Singapore actually gives educated women the "right" to have children. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the USA Congress (which is still controlled by only Baby Boomers) think "reproductive rights" equates to "abortion." Go figure, truly absolutely backwards when compared to Singapore. We really need to get some Gen Y's and GenX into Congress so we can speed up the progress for diversity of POV, rather than ruling as if this country is still stuck in the 60s.
Singapore defines progress and is a perfect example of excellent leadership.
Regards,
Amy J |
