> Somebody: Didn't you just hold up Singapore as a "First
> World service economy with reasonably free and fair elections"?
That's what Singapore is. Sure, it could be more democratic, like any society, but that's really up to Singaporeans to figure out for themselves.
> Nevertheless, it produces some of the best health
> outcomes of any large city in the world (and that's what Singapore should
> be compared to, since it's basically a modern day polis).
That's mostly because of the institutional support structure of the developmental state: lots of public investment in housing, sophisticated industrial policies, state-owned pensions, combined with the fact that there's no giant predatory health insurance industry intent on gaming their system to enrich a few shareholders.
-- DRR