Turns out when you're an ethnically homogenous, xenophobic, low immigration country that brutally enforces social norms and anti-drug policy, you can achieve enough compliance to have nice public things even in urban environments.

You cannot have high birth rates, high growth, high immigration, libertarian personal freedoms or much innovation however.

There is no perfect design, only different trade-offs.

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saagarjha an hour ago | parent | next [-]

You didn't even mention high trust society this time, I feel like you're slipping

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pembrook an hour ago | parent [-]

High trust is a byproduct of an ethnically homogenous society.

I prefer not having good public bathrooms and instead prefer more personal freedoms, economic growth/dynamism, and immigration. But it sounds like you would prefer different trade offs.

I just think its funny that internet populists believe you can have everything. You can't.

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saagarjha 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Not that I would particularly like to live there but Singapore has fairly clean public restrooms. I suspect there is more to this than the ethnic makeup of the country.

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mft_ 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the West, I’d argue (from personal experience) that a high trust society probably correlates more with high level of employment and (maybe as a second order effect) reasonably high income.

Taking Switzerland as an example, it’s possible to have a managed/positive approach to immigration and maintain very high societal standards.

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CursedSilicon 40 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Your bewildering obsession with "populism" sure does define your entire worldview

	▲	pembrook 36 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Care to offer a rebuttal to any of my statements? Would love to hear you destroy me with superior logic and/or educate me where I'm wrong. Or we can just stick to attacking me personally because what I've said makes you emotionally upset.

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JimDabell 32 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Singapore is a melting pot of many different ethnicities, it’s not xenophobic, and more than 40% of people living in Singapore are immigrants. And it has extremely low crime.

This lauding of ethnic homogeneity and xenophobia just seems to be a dog whistle from the American right because they want to say “See? If we kicked out all the non-whites it would fix our problems!” it’s not true; It’s just a very, very, very old racist playbook.

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squidmaster 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Singapore whips the shit out of degenerate criminals, they don't get coddled as westerners think appropriate. Where there's a whip, there's a way.

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JimDabell 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

You sound like a Nazi when you call people degenerates. Was that your intended meaning?

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squidmaster 8 minutes ago | parent [-]

My meaning is that people who smear shit on walls are incompatible with civilization and need to be treated as Singapore and Japan treat them, which soft westerners characterize as "savage". When you accommodate degenerates, you degrade society as a whole. That's what it means for somebody to be a degenerate, their behavior degrades society, breaking down nice things we once had. The dearth of public bathrooms is one such result.

Btw I don't care that you call me a nazi. If you think we should be going easy on criminals, you're part of the reason we don't have public bathrooms. Civilization requires upkeep.

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qarl 6 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's just that dehumanizing language sounds really Nazi.

It's a tell.

	▲	squidmaster a minute ago \| parent [-]
		The results speak, Singapore and Japan are more civilized than your country or mine, because they whip their degenerates instead of crying about nazis. If your ideology leads us to this, then what use is it?

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pembrook 25 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Singapore is just further evidence of my statements being true.

They also brutally enforce social norms and anti-drug policy, and in 2025 they had a total of 35K people granted permanent residency (in a country of 6M people).

In Singapore you're confusing temporary foreign workers with true immigration. In fact Singapore is an extremely low immigration country.

None of these foreign workers qualify for Singapore's public housing or healthcare for example.

I'm pro immigration and left-leaning, but I don't disagree with the right wingers that ethnic homogeneity leads to higher social trust (many studies have demonstrated this). I prefer having immigration though.

	▲	JimDabell 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Also, imo Singapore is just further evidence of my statements being true. Not anything to do with race it isn’t. It’s a direct contradiction to your claims.