Back in the early ‘60s, my old friend Tommy Chan was just a kid in Singapore, scrounging for scraps in a shantytown where open sewers ran through the streets. His family shared a single-room shack, no running water, no hope of anything better.
Singapore was a dirt-poor speck of an island, freshly booted from Malaysia, with a per capita GDP of $500 and no natural resources to speak of. Tommy’s dad, a dockworker and a man who survived the wars, told him to be happy that they could eat twice a day.
Fast-forward to 2025, and Tommy’s a retired engineer living in a sleek condo in Marina Bay. He drinks his tea, looking out at a skyline that rivals New York. How’d this happen?
Three words: Lee Kuan Yew. The man’s obsession with the rule of law, private property, and free markets turned a swampy slum into one of the richest, safest places on Earth. Let me tell you why—and why socialism could never pull this off.
When Lee Kuan Yew took the helm in 1965, Singapore was a mess. Ethnic riots, communist agitators, and corruption were the norm. Most “experts” wrote the place off—no oil, no minerals, no farmland, just a crowded port with a shaky future. But Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer with a libertarian streak, saw the truth: wealth comes from human ingenuity, not dirt. He bet everything on two principles—rule of law and private property—and built a system that let free markets work their magic.
First, the rule of law. Lee knew that without clear, enforced rules, you get chaos, not commerce. He cracked down on corruption with a vengeance. The Corruption Practices Investigation Bureau became a feared name, hauling in everyone from petty bureaucrats to high rollers if they crossed the line.
No one was above the law—not even Lee’s allies. By 1970, Singapore was squeaky clean, and today it ranks third globally on Transparency International’s corruption index.
This wasn’t some feel-good regulation; it was the foundation for trust. Investors, workers, and entrepreneurs knew the game wasn’t rigged. Compare that to socialist basket cases like Venezuela, where cronies loot the system while oil wealth vanishes. Socialism’s centralized control breeds corruption; free markets demand accountability.
Then came private property.
Lee understood that if people can’t own what they build, they won’t build. Singapore’s government reformed land laws to make property rights sacred. You buy a plot or start a business, it’s yours—no warlord or bureaucrat can snatch it.
This was a big lure for foreign investors. Companies like IBM and Texas Instruments rolled in, pumping $1.2 billion into Singapore by 1980. By 2020, that number hit $92 billion. Why? Because they knew their factories wouldn’t be “nationalized” by some populist dictator.
Tommy’s dad got a job at one of those factories, and the steady paycheck let Tommy go to school instead of scavenging. Socialism, with its collectivist “share everything” mantra, kills this kind of incentive. Look at Cuba—state-seized farms and businesses led to empty shelves and a GDP per capita of $7,800, while Singapore’s grows past $129,000.
Lee wasn’t some pie-in-the-sky theorician. He was practical. Singapore’s government built public housing—80% of Singaporeans live in these flats—but here’s the kicker: they own them through leasehold programs like the Housing and Development Board. This gave regular folks like Tommy a stake in the system, a reason to work and invest in their future.
Add low taxes—17% corporate rates, no capital gains tax—and you’ve got a machine that rewards effort. Singapore’s education system, one of the best globally, churned out skilled workers like Tommy, who designed circuits for a tech firm. Infrastructure—ports, airports, roads—was built to last, not to line political pockets.
The Port of Singapore now handles 39 million TEUs annually, and its financial sector manages $2.4 trillion in assets. That’s what happens when you let markets, not bureaucrats, drive growth.
Don’t get me wrong—Lee wasn’t perfect. His heavy-handed policies on speech and dissent rub some libertarians the wrong way. But when you’re lifting a nation from poverty, you need discipline to keep the train on the tracks. Compare Singapore to its neighbors. Malaysia’s per capita GDP is $14,000; Indonesia’s is $5,000. Both have resources Singapore lacks, but they flirted with socialist policies and cronyism.
Singapore’s crime rate is 0.7 incidents per 1,000 people, and you can walk the streets at midnight without a worry. Unemployment? 2.1%. This is what free markets, backed by law and property rights, deliver.
Socialism promises equality but delivers stagnation. Look at Tommy’s life: from a kid in a slum to an affluent homeowner in a top-tier international city. That’s not a government handout; that’s a system that lets hard work pay off. Lee Kuan Yew proved it—free markets, rule of law, and private property aren’t just ideas; they’re the engine of prosperity. And that, folks, is why Singapore’s a miracle—and why socialism will always flop.
All the best,
Christian DeHaemer
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