This video reminds me of both the success and the failure of Singapore.
Philosopher and author Alain de Botton imagines a fictional country called “Richland” and asks a simple question: if you wanted to design a society to become as rich and economically successful as possible, what would you create?
Strong institutions. Law and order. Low corruption. Excellent infrastructure. An educated workforce. Competitive markets. Low taxes. In other words, many of the things Singapore has done extraordinarily well.
But then it gets uncomfortable. Because once you optimize a society for achievement, productivity, competition and economic success, those values don’t stay inside the economy. They seep into everything…
Who you are becomes what you do.
Children learn that achievement brings approval. Status matters. Comparison matters. Keeping up matters. Work becomes identity, and material success becomes evidence that your life is going well. The society becomes incredibly effective at producing wealth… and the people become incredibly effective at producing, performing and achieving.
That is what I find so fascinating about Singapore.
By almost every conventional measure, it is one of the great success stories of the modern world. I love living here, and there is an enormous amount Singapore gets right. But success has a shadow. At some point, the question shifts from, “How do we become richer, safer and more successful?” to “What is all this success for?”
Because if we build an extraordinary economy but people are anxious, exhausted, afraid of falling behind and unsure of their value beyond what they achieve, then we have solved only half the problem.
