A video claiming that Singaporeans are romanticising life overseas has sparked debate online, with netizens split over whether Singapore’s efficiency and convenience are worth giving up for life abroad.
On June 13, Felix Lee — a 28-year-old Singaporean entrepreneur based in San Francisco and co-founder and CEO of mentorship platform ADPList — posted a video arguing that Singaporeans often idealise foreign cities while overlooking what they already have at home.
“You are trading the best functioning city on earth for a Netflix version of London that doesn’t exist,” he said.
Drawing on his experience living in San Francisco and having friends based in cities including London, Melbourne and New York, Lee argued that many Singaporeans compare reality at home with an idealised version of life overseas.
In the video, he described London as grey and rainy for nine months a year, with a single-bedroom flat costing around $4,000 a month in rent. Meanwhile, Melbourne commuters face lengthy delays on public transport, and New York can drain wallets the moment one steps out the door.
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“Meanwhile, in Singapore, you tap on the MRT, the next train is in two minutes. You eat a Michelin-star meal for $6 at a hawker centre,” he said.
Lee also pointed to factors such as safety, healthcare, internet reliability and government responsiveness as reasons Singapore remains difficult to beat.
In his view, Singapore functions so smoothly that many locals have become desensitised to the conveniences around them and “forget to be impressed by it”.
“We have confused boring with functioning,” Lee said. “We thought sterile means soulless”.
He urged Singaporeans to appreciate the vibrant culture already around them, such as exploring Geylang at night, taking a bum boat to Pulau Ubin, or eating at kopitiams.
Every other country would “queue to be Singapore”, he said, adding that the city-state is “quite frankly the best”.
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