High cost of living … in Singapore

I wrote about a lot of things about Singapore in the early part of 2013.  It was a 6-part series with a simply title, "Yishun."  Well, Yishun is that beautiful suburban residential area where I spent a week living with my college friends, "Neal" and "Joyce" (not their real names), while attending a seminar on Public-Private-Partnership.  I thought Yishun exemplifies what is really good and beautiful about ordinary life in Singapore, in sharp contrast to the gild and glitters one usually imagine when we talk about this small but popular Southeast Asian city-state.

I have shared a lot about Singapore, mostly on the positive side and usually flattering to say the least.  About the only critical issues I've raised were on population and social liberty and lifestyle, which are a bit too-controlled and over-regulated, comparatively, at least.  When you live in a country where people take to the streets at every public issue, rallies and demonstrations as frequent as 3-day midnight sales in malls, life in a Singapore can be a bit constrictive.  But the overall rating is still excellent.  And nobody seems to disagree.

Consider this - it has the fifth busiest port in the world, and the fourth largest financial center.  Its per capital GDP stands at US$60,000/annum, which place them at the top 5 worldwide (compare this to the Philippines' US$4,500).  And almost everything else are topmost, too - transportation systems, education, health services, housing (as I have described in my columns, "Yishun" parts 2 to 4 last year), and commerce.  It is way ahead in maintaining a cleaner and sustainable environment - throwing trash anywhere there is very, very costly!

Yet, one Singaporean I talked to the other day, seemed to have lots of complaints about his city/country.  Well, to tell you the truth, I did meet many others in the past who were not too happy about Singapore.  It was really disturbing at the start, seeing all that is attractive and pretty about this country and meeting some of its citizens with many complaints about how they live.  It's probably true, that we could never be fully contented with what we have and will always desire for something more.  But it really would help to understand what their complaints are, having all those things, as compared to us who don't have many of those.

What I understood from my friend is that the bulk of the complaint stems from the "apparent" high cost of living in Singapore.  He mentioned a few things to emphasize the point but let's discuss that later.  We first have to level off a few things because costs and prices are relative, starting off with the difference in exchange rates - from USD to Singapore dollars (SGD) to PHP.  If you go to a convenience store or grocery in Singapore, prices might a little bit higher than what we have here.  But that's mainly because it is an island-state, with little or no agriculture and similar commodities/natural resources.  Even water is imported from Malaysia and sand and gravel is shipped in from Indonesia.  Among many other things.

On the other hand, we have to contend with the fact that many Asians, not only Filipinos, consider Singapore as a shopping haven.  Simply put, there are a lot of items which cost less in Singapore than anywhere else, at least in Asia.  One may argue that its shopping appeal refer to the variety of choice rather than the cost but this is not the case as I have learned from other friends.  There are a lot of items that cost less in Singapore, and this is not limited to Duty Free items but includes many hi-tech and electronics items as well.

On the other hand, what my friend was referring to is the basic cost of living.  He gave an example - cars are very expensive!  Of course, since you have to pay a "license" to own a car which is more than the cost of the car itself, then cars over there cost more than double than anywhere else.  Their "efficient" traffic systems also leads to higher costs of driving a car, especially with the ERP or electronic road pricing which may be astronomical on peak hours at the city center.  But that's the cost of lesser congestion.  Which may no longer be the case soon, as my friend retorted because traffic is becoming heavier in Singapore.

Finally there's the housing or HDBs.  Indeed my Yishun friends agreed that housing is expensive.  But that is the cost of having all these sufficient residential units.  There are no "informal settlers" in Singapore, no slum areas.  All citizens can acquire decent housing units.  But the cost of delivery is shared by everyone else.  And all those sufficient health services and complete and available educational systems have to be paid for.  It is the price of a more equitable distribution of wealth with stronger middle class.  At US$60,000 per capita, I still believe life in Singapore is more affordable and sustainable.