How does Singapore pay for social services?

[R_P_A_S]

A country that's a tax haven.. has exceptional public transport, world class medical facilities, clean streets and a really good public school system and government assistance for higher education.. How can they afford it if taxes are either really low or non-existent?

[Rafiq]

http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2012/05/03/myth-singapore

Singapore is by no means a country with exceptional public transport, world calss medical facilities, etc. Ask a commoner who lives there.

And, at that,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0woJ9R1PsPo

Watch this guy complain.

Also it's a haven of foreign investment, if anything, and like most developing Asian countries it will eventually fall on it's ass in the same way the U.S. and Europe did.

[R_P_A_S]

http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2012/05/03/myth-singapore

Singapore is by no means a country with exceptional public transport, world calss medical facilities, etc. Ask a commoner who lives there.

And, at that,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0woJ9R1PsPo

Watch this guy complain.

Also it's a haven of foreign investment, if anything, and like most developing Asian countries it will eventually fall on it's ass in the same way the U.S. and Europe did.

I beg the differ. They have great public transport. The medical facilities are top notch. I think their Health Care system is pretty affordable and seems to be for the most port effective. IM NOT SAYING it's perfect or that It's a great place for workers etc. Im asking if they have all this tax havens and breaks.. how can they fund their infrastructure and social services, public schools.. fund them in the sense that they are good quality.. comparable to the western industrialized countries.

[Will Scarlet]

If a lot of companies go there and pay even a miniscule amount of tax it's enough for them to make bank as a small country. That's why they do it.

[Zealot]

Well, they do have taxes. They also have state-owned companies and high import duties on cars etc. The welfare system is basically non-existent in Singapore but at least they have enough to hire an army of street-sweepers. Many of the things you listed are not covered by the government to my knowledge. Their public transport is quite good but, again, it isn't free. It has an authoritarian regime that still professes "anti-Communism", as if it was a threat to Singapore in 2012. Transparency International ranked them number 5, making them supposedly one of the least corrupt countries in the world. A bad joke obviously.