Materialistic or Insecure?

[Guest]

My theory is that Singaporeans are deemed materialistic as they want to be seen 'up' - and that this stems from a lack of confidence and a strong need to be validated by friends, family and even strangers. So the more branded goods one has, and the bigger the car, the better one feels.

Question is - how to get rid of this mentality? I think young people should be encouraged to explore - to realise that there is more out there in the world than the cutest mobile or fastest car. And this exploration must be their own sweat and toil - and they'll have to be responsible for their own safety net. That way, they'll stand on their own 2 feet and be more entrepreneurial about how to get things done. I say this because I've done it.

[Guest]

What we witness today is typical of societies that experience very rapid growth and improvement in wealth and prosperity over short periods of time. Ostentatious display of wealth, status symbols, materialism are the trademark of people who's one foot is still in the kampung while the other is in the city, of people who are newly out of material deprivation. Singapore is now a modern society. Will it ever (and when) will it make the transition to a post-modern society?

[Bafana]

Off topic - But I think we need to consider this point.

Why as an expat forum are we constantly bringing up and making new threads to flame the local Singaporeans?

I am guilty of this as well - So just wondering.

BTW Singaporeans are materialistic beyond the normal bounds of human endeavour - Whether its cash, credit, condo, car, carrer (The five c's - are they right???) , women, men, clothes - basically everything.

It makes me mental sometimes as I am not to a certain extent materialistic...

[Alltalk]

I, for one, blame the government for the propogation of unneccesary acronyms. Then I blame the inevitably-rich expats for making an issue of locals trying to catch up with them materially. Personal reflection and soul-searching are a last resort.

[Ferrina]

im a singaporean and altho some fellow singaporeans may or may not agree with me this is wat i feel personally

i feel singapore ON A WHOLE but not all....well not all....is very materialistic...

we do not have unemployment pension right so we have to work our ass off and if we do fall sick suddenly the medisave is ultimately from our own CPF even if theres govt grants...not like overseas example aussie or uk or germany

so i guess "forced" by circumstances and sometimes cut throat competition being such a small country and having a lack of natural resources we have to compete for a lot of things and along the way ppl get lost...it becomes a streamlined thinking or mindset phenomenon and it is sometimes debilitating as it decreases one's space for creativity

i have relatives who have been looking down on my parents becoz we live in a one room flat and wat they always say is oh i sold my flat and moved into a condo and yea i bought this new car etc my new jewelry bla bla bla well not everyone is like that but i grew up watching my relatives like that....

then theres that talk of ohhh is ur son or daughter in the UNIVERSITYYYYYYYYYY????????????????????? oh he or she is not? myyyyyy kid went into this university bla blah

and id just roll my eyes and wanna put ear plugs in lol

of course theres chummy good ole singaporean frens who wouldnt bat an eyelid if i was stuck somewhere and ran out of cash to jump in a cab on a mobile call from me and then send me home lending me a few bucks for the next miserable few days too and not demanding it back in an instant noeing im down in the dumps...

unless u have some kind of high qualifications, good investors, born rich, have special recognisable talents...u will have a harder life on a whole and thus ppl try and slog to get by

some retain their graciousness while others become bitter...happens everywhere i guess but being a small country squashed together with lack of natural resources its more obvious

just my thoughts thats all lol

no one has to agree or disagree everyone has a right to how they feel ultimately

Ferrina