Singapore has a regressive shock absorber model where something like half the country are immigrants that are ineligible for, say, public housing which even the better off citizens take advantage of in Singapore (maybe even disproportionately so since there can be a long wait to get in, you are older and more settled at that point). Immigrants that get milked dry and go broke and jobless during a shock are booted from the country before they can be polled.

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Vs say US, where immigrants and those funding public housing are generally better off than the people getting subsidized housing. Public housing is more a progressive than regressive tax in the US, so quite dissimilar. Immigrants in US are on average far better off than those on public housing. Asking "but how is this any different" (after I already answered it, lol) over and over doesn't negate this, nor the fact that immigrants are like half of workers in Singapore vs only 10% in the US so the funding dynamic and dependency is far different.

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joe_mamba 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>Singapore has a regressive shock absorber model where something like half the country are immigrants that are ineligible for, say, public housing which even the better off citizens take advantage of in Singapore

It's similar in Vienna where only native Viennese are immediately eligible for social housing, but outsiders will end up paying into the system without being eligible.

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erichocean 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> outsiders will end up paying into the system

By definition, outsiders don't have to pay into the system since they already have a gov't somewhere else that is dedicated to them, just like the Viennese do.

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joe_mamba 4 hours ago | parent [-]

>By definition, outsiders don't have to pay into the system

They absolutely do pay into the system when they move to and work in Vienna. By outsiders in this context I meant foreign workers. I assumed that was clear from the context of the discussion.

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erichocean 40 minutes ago | parent [-]

> I meant foreign workers

So did I. Being foreign, they can work at home and not pay into a system they have no part of. Problem solved.

	▲	joe_mamba 10 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		When you move to Vienna you become part of the system since you pay income + other taxes, just like the locals, except unlike the locals, you get rug-pulled at social housing. Unless of course ... your comment was just an anti immigration dogwhsitle from the start, in which case you should just said THAT instead, and not waste people's time with cumbersome allegories masquerading as arguments.

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eunos 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think you can buy if youre PR and married (or old enough). If you are lucky you can receive your PR in 1 year.

	▲	kccqzy 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The Singapore PR system is purposefully racist. If you are white, your probability of getting a PR and citizenship is way lower than someone of the Chinese race. The government does not want significant changes to the country’s racial composition.

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finolex1 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How is that different from the US? Immigrants also get booted here if they lose their job. They also pay social security, Medicare, and other taxes but usually don't get the benefits unless they stay here for long enough and get a green card.

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paxys 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The difference is the number. Workers on temporary visas make up ~1% of the labor force in the US. And a large chunk of them will eventually get citizenship or permanent residency and qualify for benefits later in life.

Countries like Singapore and all of the Middle East meanwhile rely on a revolving door of cheap immigrant labor. In the extreme cases like Qatar 95% of the working population are on short term visas. Most of these countries don't have a pathway to citizenship at all for this worker class. You could live there, work and pay taxes for 10 or 20 or 50 years, but the day you "retire" you need to pack up and leave.

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temp8830 4 hours ago | parent [-]

The US also has a huge pool of undocumented immigrants who don't get any benefits, don't pay into the social security system, and can be paid below minimum wage (because officially they don't exist). Any time this labor supply is threatened, the construction and agriculture industries rise up (and probably sponsor all those massive protests you see in the news).

	▲	u8vov8 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		No one is paying protesters, people like us in Minneapolis actually do organically hate the current regime and its apologists (you?) that much.
	▲	u8vov8 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		And undocumented immigrants pay around 25 billion dollars annually into social security
	▲	janalsncm 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> probably sponsor all those massive protests you see in the news Most Americans do not need to be paid to dislike fascism.

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dangus 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That sounds quite similar to the US.