Singapore GDP Warning!
the crazy rich Asians are ahead of the US
I’m sure we all enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians, the book by Kevin Kwan and the movie, all about how this nice middle-class NYU Asian-American girl college professor finds out that her nice middle-class NYU Asian-American boy college professor is in fact a scion of the richest family, and the most eligible bachelor, in Singapore.
Then, I am sure we are all thinking about reading the biography of the late great Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew titled From Third World to First to find out how Singapore did it.
Maybe now is a good time to read it. In the last couple of years the per-capita GDP of Singapore has exceeded the US per-capita GDP. Here’s the story, from the World Bank database:
US in red; Singapore in blue.
Back in 1960 the Singapore per-capita GDP in 2015 constant dollars was $3,612, compared to $19,135 for the US.
In 2022 the Singapore per-capita GDP in 2015 constant dollars was $67,360, compared to $62,789 for the US.
OMG! The Crazy Rich Asians have overtaken us!
By the way, mainland China per-capita GDP for 2022 in 2015 constant dollars was $11,560. All from the World Bank. In case you were wondering, Singapore passed $11,500 (2015 dollars) in 1978. Imagine what the world will be like when the CCP retires President Xi and grows enough to equal the per-capita GDP of the US.
But I am relieved. The ambiguity in the “Crazy Rich Asians” title has been resolved. We are not talking about “crazy Asians” but Asians that are “crazy rich.”
In case you are wondering, Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990 and influential thereafter.
By the way. Did you know that government spending in Singapore is about 10 percent of GDP, compared to 39 percent for the US? How do they do that? I mean, how do you get your Ten Percent for the Big Guy when you are only spending 10 percent of GDP on government and you still have the fanciest airport in the world.
So now you know why, when Rachel Chu and Nick Young boarded the plane for Singapore, they didn’t fly Business Class. They didn’t fly First Class. They flew Private Suite. But that was nothing. In the sequel, Crazy Rich Asians fly their private 747s to Paris for the fashion shows.
But hey! Bidenomics for ever!