What an existentialist question to chew on on my way to work.

By freedom, I assume you mean the freedom of speech? The short answer is, you never really know what you are missing out on if you never have had it in the first place. Singapore runs like clockwork, so if that means a ban of protests/demonstrations and a designated Speaker’s Corner for people to air their views candidly, I don’t see any problems frankly.

Coincidentally, our elections are coming. 3rd May, in fact. I guess the disadvantage of having a paternalistic state is that we never get to elevate our level of discourse. 1) politics are dirty, so there is plenty of mudslinging and name-calling from supporters of the ruling party and opposition parties alike, 2) people are preoccupied with bread and butter issues, so their lens are pretty much fixated on money money and more money. But to be fair, I don’t think our national character should be attributed as a shortcoming of our government. Many factors are in play. The majority of us are ethnically Chinese (and 华人就是爱钱 lol), we are in a highly dense country, where comparing with the Joneses is easy and inevitable, and we have the struggling Islander mentality, in which we are afraid that we won’t have money in the future.

In short, money talks, freedom not so much