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It’s interesting that economist Ha-Joon Chang uses Singapore as an example of an economic system that defies classification, citing that the world is too complex to be able to do that. However, what professor Chang fails to acknowledge is that Singapore’s success is similar to that of China (the melting pot of free market enterprise under one party rule).

In Singapore’s case it’s One party/family rule (father > Lee Kuan Yew, and son >Lee Hsien Loong) that has controlled Singapore since 1963 have allowed free market capitalism to work under their control. But in order to keep workers happy, you build affordable government built condos on government land to provide the workers basic standards of living and provide government jobs to keep them happy and to support the free enterprise sector that drives the growth and the economy.

But to “keep the peace” you censor free speech through tightened security, rights of assembly, and an aggressive enforcement of a sweeping “online falsehoods” law to limit government criticism. (Sound familiar Mr. Trudeau)

Singapore’s success, according to Lee Hsien Yang (estranged son of Lee Kuan Yew, and brother of the current prime minister), is an “affluent veneer that hides repression and corruption”.

So I suppose that the missing ingredient in a successful economic state like Singapore is the “right type of repression and corruption” so that free markets succeed? Right???

I think that I will stick with the “Austrian School of Economics” that embodies free markets with protection of the individual, along with their rights and freedoms.

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