Daft, elitist posts from wealthy bloggers and TikTokers will hurt Singapore

SINGAPORE really is a dreadful place to live, isn’t it? Unless you can find $40,000 down the back of the sofa, every month, you’ll be reduced to the horrors of living in one of the most successful public housing projects in the world, travelling on one of the best public transport systems in the world and eating at some of the most affordable eateries in the world.

Honestly, it’s in these moments that I feel like I’m working for the Singapore government – I’m really not, I’m still getting flak for the SimplyGo columns – or at the very least, I must conform to working class stereotype and play Oliver Twist yet again in a bid to be heard among the Marie Antoinettes currently going viral on social media.

The latest one is known as "Thatasianmama", who posted on TikTok that it takes up to $40K a month to raise a family "comfortably" in Singapore. She has a point. Give me $40k a month and I’ll have my family carried comfortably to the coffee shop on a golden chariot of Ikea pillows, just because I could. But her post went viral. As expected. Well done. Game recognises game, as middle-aged columnists say in an attempt to get down with the kids.

Of course the post went viral. Traditional media can often feel like a trawling exercise through social media, falling for the click-bait and reeling in one narcissistic post after another. On a macro level, this is happening everywhere, as traditional media outlets seek eyeballs without cataracts. But on a micro level, this routine says a bit about Singapore, too. We love to amplify these individual posts, making them bigger, but in the process, making us seem smaller.

Just because a random Australian tourist finds Singapore boring, for instance, it doesn’t mean his recent social media post deserves national coverage and another angst-ridden meltdown. He’s one Aussie backpacker. Have you seen those guys in Bali? Unless Singapore covets bearded men in flip flops and Bintang singlets shouting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” at a Kuta Beach sports bar, let it go.

Battle lines between haves and have-nots

The same could be said for ‘Thatasianmama’ and her belief that a family of three need up to $40,000 a month to clothe, feed, educate and entertain their kids in Singapore. Apparently, that figure was based on a lifestyle that doesn’t include looking at price tags, which will at least make the family a huge hit with SimplyGo advocates.

But the $40k figure also factors in a parenting choice to “say yes to the child's request for extra hobbies”, which is most laudable, but what are these extra hobbies? Yacht racing? South African diamond mining?

When I was a kid, I had to choose between a karate lesson or playing in goal for the local football team. Both cost £2 a week. My mother couldn’t afford both. In the end, we opted for the latter, which gave me a sports media career of sorts, but I lacked the self-defence skills to protect myself when I was mugged twice, so I applaud any parent who can say yes to a child’s extra hobby requests.

But I’ve done it already, haven’t I? I’ve played the Oliver Twist card early, reminding readers again of my poor upbringing and drawing those battle lines between the haves and the have-nots, which is perhaps what "Thatasianmama" wanted in the first place, to stoke the fires of inequality and get us all turning on each other in some Marxist hellscape.

It’s already happening, to a degree. On Facebook, Singaporeans are mostly irritated at the elitist, entitled undertones. On LinkedIn, international commenters are bravely raising their heads above the parapet to suggest that maybe, you know, the $40k figure is possibly not far off the mark when, you know, international schools, condos in desirable postcodes, cars and domestic helpers are factored in, you know, the bare necessities of human existence.

And they may all be right. Different cultural and financial circumstances can make both sides of the argument seem plausible and reasonable (though I’ve never understood why HDB housing, which provides homes to almost 80 per cent of the population, is immediately dismissed out of hand in many circles. Telling elite types that I spent 10 years happily living in HDB flats often feels like I’m telling them I did 10 years in Vietnam.)

Humble-brag posts don't help in addressing divide

But the divide is there. It’s real. It’s real enough to make Teo You Yenn’s outstanding book, This Is What Inequality Looks Like, one of the most unexpected best-sellers in recent years. It’s real enough to make Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong outline a plan to address the key challenges of inequality and mobility in the next government. The middle classes must be expanded, but lower incomes must also be lifted to make social mobility a viable option.

This week, the Key Household Income Trends 2023, a paper by the Singapore Department of Statistics, was released, indicating that the median monthly household income was around $10,869. The average monthly wage is just over $5,000. It’s a long way from $40k, eh?

In Oxfam’s Commitment to Reducing Inequality 2022 Index, which ranks the steps taken to reduce inequality, Singapore was ranked 79 out of 161 countries, which can be partially explained by the country’s comparatively low social spending, due to the traditional emphasis on filial piety rather than welfarism. Low taxes and the redistribution of wealth will continue to be addressed in the years ahead, but on a simple, human level, how do these humble-brag posts help? How do these click-baiting displays of affluence benefit Singapore’s delicate, societal framework?

Growing up in Thatcher’s Britain at the height of '80s excess and tacky yuppiedom, there was a comedian called Harry Enfield, who created the character "Loadsamoney", who essentially waved bundles of cash at the screen and screamed, "look at my wad". He was a nouvelle riche moron. A joke. Today, he’d be boasting about his wealth journey on LinkedIn or bragging about his kids’ school fees on TikTok. He’d be aspirational. He’d be huge.

Superficially, these posts can be a bit of fun, something to laugh at on the MRT. But what happens when the mockery stops and the questions change? What if "how can this person not live on less than $40k a month" becomes "why am I earning nowhere near $40k a month? Why are so few people earning so much money in Singapore?"… Awkward questions get asked in awkward places. Stress is applied to that delicate societal framework. Stress we can all do without in such a small country.

So maybe leave the Marie Antoinette impersonations to Hollywood actors. In real life, the alleged plight of the privileged is a really dull story.

Neil Humphreys is an award-winning football writer and a best-selling author, who has covered the English Premier League since 2000 and has written 28 books.

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