Singaporeans Lack Social Capital (Part Two)

I remembered looking at University mates who were over-excited over some economics graph in business school and thought to myself that they were in the wrong school. I later found out that most University students merely wanted a good job when they graduate. The degree and graph solving is merely a means to an end.

This argument shall be mostly anecdotal as a Singaporean, similarly to Just like What Inequality Looks Like by You Yenn Teo.

How Social Capital is Allocated in a Family Unit

Growing up, my Mum wouldn’t blink an eye when it came to tuition and formal education. Just so you know, I used to be a student that received academic prizes and awards from ministers. That’s how much tuition I received.

She doesn’t have the same beliefs when it came to learning outside of school. I paid for external programs by myself. One time I told my Mum that I would like to join a high level paid business networking membership. You can guess. She baulked at it.

This is how social capital erodes from day one.

There’s an overemphasis of academic performance as opposed to real-world skills. (as cliche as this sounds).

If you’re always allocating capital to individualistic domains (certifications, schools) then it’s safe to say you’re not going to go far in terms of ‘social capital’.

How Social Capital is Allocated Amongst Peers

I find it ironic that in University and academics, we are mostly low key individualistic and desire to strive for the better for ourselves. However, it’s socially safer (and even rewarding) to blend in with the crowd outside of performing in grades.

I mentioned in my last article that as long as you get Pavlovian negative conditioning for risk-taking and self-expression in Singapore, you’re never going to breed original thinkers, artists and innovators. Yes, there are outliers like Sim Wong Hoo (Creative’s CEO), but he’s a self-proclaimed outlier for a reason.

Unfortunately, an educated population leads to dismissive naysayers about how such a culture is akin to ‘western liberal values’. They are often followed by a common argument: ‘Singapore is better than Y country at X *insert some Googled economic figure or happiness index lol*.’

It’s also a common argument dynamic used by my parents whenever I attempted to compare Singapore to other cultures.

‘Oh yes look at Singapore we don’t have the drug problems of America.’

In this case, the debaters extrapolated a critique’s of Singapore’s lack of organic creativity to another culture’s drug issues.

So… you cannot have creativity without having any drug issues?

I’m sure Sim Wong Hoo must have been doped up 24/7.

One key tenet of social capital is the ability to influence, guide and shepherd communities ground up.

I’m not going to bullshit you about “diverse communities” or “diverse opinions” here. However, it’s safe to say we’re mostly off-putting on open discussion.

Culture is The Hardest to Change

Simply put, social capital is akin to how Reddit threaders have the ability to come together to make something happen. It’s easier than ever before with the advent of technology.

However, technology rarely influences psychology.

If anything, technology can lead to self-censoring or self-fulfilling prophecies. One can always seek out unlimited data or research that supports his/ her existing beliefs. Existing cultural narratives can feed into itself, and probably enhanced by technology.

Yes, Singaporeans have access to technology.

However, Singaporeans fundamentally lack social capital.