I think it's also relevant that CPF is not only a pension schema but most importantly also a home ownership scheme via HDB OA https://www.cpf.gov.sg/member/home-ownership/using-your-cpf-...

The "gotcha" here is that the home is, legally and technically, on a 99-year lease from the government. So, the government is free to take it back once the lease expires. This happened a couple of years back with an old enclave - the "owners" had to vacate their units as their lease had expired and the government needed the land for developmental purposes.

In fact, this had become a hot button issue in the elections. All this while, and even today the government claims that the people are the owner considering they can sell the units and book profits. On the other hand, they justify the 99-year limit, as a step to being fair towards future generations in a land scarce country.

There have been many policy and public discussions around this topic. But, as of date, there is no firm or permanent solution to this conundrum.

this is almost entirely orthogonal. you can use cpf for private, non-99year lease housing too.

Thanks for correcting me; I accept that CPF can be used for both the cases you have mentioned.

My comment came from two observations: 1. The majority of Singapore citizens live in HDB. 2. The vast majority of non-landed residential properties (private condos and HDBs) are on 99-year leases.

You also get health insurance.

I think the UAE point is crucial - in many things, including freedom and basic rights, they are worse than Singapore. Now that most of the west (as the article says) treats civil rights and press freedom more like Singapore does, the right shifts right. I am not in the US so can't comment on the immigration point but I perceive it exactly the other way around with heavy handed immigration enforcement being worse than most expected.

The West, or just the USA?

Agree and the site here is too high level without insight. An open, good list of post mortems might be more helpful [1]. Just an addition, Code Smells [2] are a useful addition to patterns.

[1] https://github.com/danluu/post-mortems [2] https://blog.codinghorror.com/code-smells/

I had the exact same experience with HSBC, with a little twist: I was really impressed by their 100% online signup process with digital government ID which took less than 10 minutes. The process was extremely smooth, except for a very scammy sounding verification phone call. Within 1 day I had a digital card for Apple Pay and within 3 days a courier handed my my physical debit card. I liked the app too. I hadn't consented to marketing mail but HSBC decided to send me some "welcome upsell" anyways, which was returned as I refuse marketing mail. Immediately my card and account were blocked which sent me down the same experience as OP describes here.

Super interesting, just sad that Omega-3 supplements are one of the main drivers of unsustainable Krill overfishing https://seashepherd.org/2025/02/25/protecting-the-oceans-vit...

Look for algae oil instead.