Singapore – Wealth Worship

The truth is out. Pangaea does serve a USD 26,000 cocktail with a diamond in it.

It’s no wonder that Singapore has outstripped Hong Kong as the preferred city of choice by the rich, which is defined by net assets of more than USD 30 million.

Forbes : Asian Cities Seen As Where The World’s Rich Increasingly Want To Be

Someone told me that Marc Faber said some years back that Singapore was probably the only place on earth that you could wear a 5 carat diamond and drive your Lamborghini out to dinner without the fear of getting mugged.

This is what he said in 2004 !!

“My belief is that real estate in Singapore is reasonably priced at present. The Singapore dollar is low and the city offers the best quality in infrastructure – New York by comparison is like a medieval city.”

3 Hot Asia Tips From Marc Faber
1. Invest in real estate in the Chinese economic metropolitan centres.
2. Overweight Asia, underweight USA.
3. According to Faber, the Singapore dollar is undervalued. Buy !

If you had bought SGD then at 1.70 then, and a house to go with it, WOW !

Currency would have netted you 30% and the property ? Don’t ask.

WSJ : Singapore has undergone a dramatic makeover to world’s richest city – and one of the safest places to park wealth.

This is the report that is the buzz these days, as opposed to the US engineer’s death investigation.

I suppose the initial reaction of most would be pride in our achievements ? Or pressure to attain the lofty heights of being defined as “rich” ? What else ?

My reaction was one of grim dismay. It is not grief over my lack of wealthy status, it not not the fear of missing out on the Pangaea parties, it is just over the embrace of wealth as almost a new religion these days.

We keep hearing stories of many a despotic dictator coming onshore to seek medical treatment; sending their children for education here and buying up private island homes.

Then we see headlines with playboy dot com billionaries, Australia’s richest woman and others alike moving onto our sunny shores.

These people made their wealth abroad from opportunities that will never surface here.  And most of them do not run their businesses out of Singapore but for the army of bankers who will service them which creates employment, at least, in the financial sector, not to mention the tax lawyers who may or may not be onshore and of course the army of butlers and maids.

How does that make the ordinary Singaporean feel ?

1. Happy/Proud
2. Sad
3. Ambivalent
4. Envy
5. Inspired

Singaporeans are cockroach millionaires living amongst the billionaires. It makes me laugh because at the rate we are blaming the government for everything, nothing they will ever do will ever be good enough. Or until we can all afford that diamond cocktail from Pangaea.