Comments by "Alexander Philip" (@alexanderphilip1809) on "PolyMatter" channel.

  1. The problem with Singapore is that not every generation might have a LKY. He was an era defining genius and damn lucky.
    445
  2. What was it that LKY said about complacency.
    261
  3. I'll be honest. This was quite good. As an Indian I see quite a lot of parallels.
    77
  4. not so much as achieving invincibility but more of a never being in a position of weakness that others can threaten you with. Thats defense against external adverseries, doesnt account for internal threats. when you born into unparalleled security any minor threat can seem existential if you dont have a concept of relative scale. With all due respect to americans both survivors and victims of 9/11, 3000 dead is nothing. But when you have the raw power to decide the fate of nations and are given the motivation to do so you cannot expect much else its plus not just the US, its what any country in US's position would do they simply lack the resources to do so.
    48
  5. The guy who ran the country then ran it like an efficient corporation.
    42
  6. 11:34 I know Trump wasnt anybody's favourite but this is either an honest mistake or just straight up petty
    22
  7. 5:48 Leclerc. Haitians never faced Napoleon in battle it was his brother in-law that led the troops. Also it was more of a Vietnam war than a Korean one. French were bogged down by tropical diseases endemic to the climate. The fate of the French who went into Haiti was similar to other Europeans who went into tropical regions. British in Nigeria, Dutch in Indonesia, Americans in Vietnam. Plus Haiti is part of an Island. Islands are always a bitch to invade (Ask the British, Cubans or the Japanese).
    20
  8.  @obsidianstatue  How much are they paying you buddy ?
    18
  9.  @MeeraRustshieldSystem  it is a great ideal to follow if it produces results. Ideological compulsions be damned.
    8
  10. Security can blunt your survival instincts as it has in most western nations. That paranoia you mentioned a healthy dose of it is necessary to survive in a location where your water supply is controlled by the Malay's to the North and are in close proximity to an economic juggernaut like Indonesia, small nations that prioritize quality over quantity are always an inspiration Israel and Taiwan are similar examples.
    7
  11. first time for everything i guess.
    5
  12. 0:23 the hell. that ships named after my home state.
    4
  13.  @easonhuang7117  Yes. Nearly all of the Archipelagos in SEA have relatively narrow chokepoints. A naval blockade is entirely within the realm of possibility. But of course if you ask a hyper nationalist cultural warrior or a Chinaboo then to even express concern regarding that would be treated as affront to Chinese superiority.
    4
  14.  @easonhuang7117  why would a maritime power want to engage in a land war with an Asian juggernaut, Unless they haven't learned their lessons from. Afghanistan and Vietnam. When they can do more damage on the high seas. There is reason Chinese strategy is focused on a linear progression with regards to their island chain idea, you don't run before you learn to walk. It's like if America had deployed troops in India to force it to withdraw troops from Bangladesh. It's absurd. Unlike India China is farther way from its energy and it's markets.
    4
  15.  @whitneyhouston9879  Well Zeihan is often hyperbolic in his statements like what he said about one child policy. Mao didn't initiate that policy but he sure as hell was moving in that direction, when he said to have told Kissinger that he is ready to send some 10 million or so women to the US(perhaps in jest, but said nonetheless). Plus Nathan Rich is a known 50center. When you put Zeihan's hyperbolical statements and Rich's blatant partisanship, the outcome is a lot of confusion
    4
  16. Workers rights have always been under duress nothing new in that its that the newer generation has not have had anything to compare their experiences to. Say for example pre reform era to post reform. They have no scale to measure it against. Hence the uptake in popularity of things like the lie flat movement
    3
  17.  @akshat.jaiswal  Lee Kuan Yew(imperfect democracy), Kuomintang Party in Taiwan, Park Chung Hee in S.Korea. I think the only time you need to worry about "rebellion" as you put it is if you are incompetant at managing it.
    3
  18.  @whitneyhouston9879  I don't know about you but there is a concept called famine. It used to exist before Industrial agriculture was a thing. For industrial agriculture to exist you need inputs from hydrocarbons.
    3
  19.  @easonhuang7117  I don't think it's the Americans who are reliant on American soy. Most of the largest producers of agricultural products are In the western hemisphere, which means Americans have a direct line to them. I mean even if a shipment from Argentina or Brazil where to set sail. To break a potential naval blockade The Chinese navy would have to survive beyond their two island chain.
    3
  20.  @anakinthemannequin69  It is. American consumers might take a hit. But the nation as a whole won't was an existential catastrophy like the Chinese would. Plus I am sure the Vietnamese, Indonesians and Indians are waiting for an opportunity to trap any potential outbound investments. Thats not even counting the nations in South America but given their turn towards left wing politics they might present a less attractive option compared to Indonesia and Vietnam. India despite its efforts is still a "democratic socialist republic" where populism and labor militancy is strong so India's prospects are the lowest, I mean this is a labor surplus country where you need govt's permission to fire people, so.
    3
  21. Zeihan said this a couple of years back.
    3
  22. Prussian soldier king and his son are the European parrallels.
    2
  23. I rank the Singaporeans along the lines of the Taiwanese and the Israeli Jews. Strong priority given to technical and scienctific education with near hyper competant governance and a market friendly economy with a capable welfare appartus that delivers. There are other states ofcourse but none to match these states and all of them are US allies to some scale.
    2
  24. It does actually, very much so. Maybe not to you westerners in which case you are more than welcome to have your troops pack their bags. But it does matter to China, Japan, S. Korea, Russia and by extension the entire world.
    2
  25. Rest assured they will be ready. They already a dominant naval power despite bring "pacifists". Both Japan and Germany are the farthest thing from pacifists, until now they've just been bribed into being peaceful.
    2
  26. So In India neither capitalism works nor socialism. A cesspit of incompetance whatever we may choose. Nothing new here I suppose. When a govt. prioritizes shallow populist crap/ideological crap and threatens investors on one hand and give them free reign with no guidance on the other what else can you expect. Indians can but salivate over how the Singaporeans, Taiwanese and the South Koreans run forget their countries but their cities. This country has condemned itself to idealistic fetishes(sjw crap imbedded in its constitution that makes a nation out of 20+ different subnationalities) at the expense of tangiable meaningful results the blame for it lies largely on the intellectual/political/bureaucratic class that lorded over the creation of this rotting corpse we Indians call our country. Word of advice to my fellow Indians, leave for a more functional country, a country that economically asphyxiates its citizenry doesnt deserve their labour. Not Modi nor the Gandhis can change this. The ones with the political capital are no longer alive(they were ideological a-holes themselves).
    2
  27. Fine wine, brother. Fine wine.
    2
  28. Singaporeans came up with a solution for graduate unemployment. Reduce their supply in the labor market. I believe they have put together some form of restrictions on their access to tertiary education. All though they did screw it up by giving privileges to foreign grad students. It would've worked better if Singaporean citizens were proritized over foreigners. It's a smart move to restrict intake into advanced higher education institutions. But that access should be reserved a exclusively for Native citizens.
    2
  29. I always got the impression that most of your work especially regarding geopolitics had traces of influence from Marshall and Zeihan. Same thing with Wendover or maybe it was RLL I can't remember, but some of their work also had influences from writers like Zeihan.
    2
  30.  @tobene  both of those nations rank highly on eodb index and arent socialist cesspits despite having syrong social welfare systems.
    2
  31.  @tobene  you are really illinformed if you think the dutch and the scandanvians grew themselves exclusively with "government planning".
    2
  32. given that most of the great ones are dead, every politician on planet earth now needs to take a course of logical consistancy.
    2
  33.  @andrewsitu3472  seriously ?. A guy who leads a socially liberal party ? Maybe in the future, liberals have a tendancy to be idealizing morons. No offence.
    2
  34. You are missing the part where singapore is rich enough to afford this shit. I know countries with socialism embedded into their constitution thar are not even 1/10 as competant as these guys. Read upon Lee Kuan Yew if you wanna know the difference between inept dysfunctional ideology propounded by lazy intellectuals and inexperienced students and pragmatism that values the best of both economic freedom and social welfare with a hyper competant state at the centre.
    2
  35. feels good to be early.
    2
  36.  @easonhuang7117  you clearly don't understand how China got rich.
    2
  37.  @kimandre336  There is no love lost between the South East Asians and China. The Malaysians have their own issues with the Chinese people. Indonesians want a foreign financier. The largest South East Asians have their interests largely aligned with the Americans. Now hating Zeihan is your personal opinion. But there is an old quote. The Strong do what hey can while the weak suffer what they must. So you see, your hate is inconsequential, if the powers that be decide to make certain things happen whether that be China or Japan or the US There is a good chance of it happening . I am by no means suggesting that the SEA nations don't have agency but aside from the Malaysians most don't. Indonesians are the worst off, their security is predicated on nobody messing around in their peripheral islands. Singaporeans will get by, Thailand has a history of surviving foreign influence. Rest of them frankly don't matter.
    2
  38.  @zyp85  He is a credible analyst but you are right. He can be hyperbolic especially with regards to countries he is bearish on.
    2
  39.  @johnl9361  Japan is not the greatest but it is great enough. Enough to be credible threat to China if not an existential one.
    2
  40. I need answers.
    2
  41. 16:55 Thats the US for you the only country with Real Choice.
    1
  42. And yet it makes juvenile mistakes courtesy of its naive idealism.
    1
  43. Theranos says it all.
    1
  44. What sort hole do you live in ? DPRK is not China where the idea of false narratives has some credence.
    1
  45.  @asneecrabbier3900  They are better their neighbours so, yeah deserve their success.
    1
  46. What am I taking about. -pending Land Reforms after 60+ years of independance -dysfunctional labour laws a fine example of regulatory capture by organized labour(1920's to 1970's) that had pretty much atrophied India's industrial/manufacturing sectors. Attempt to reform it was met with resistence from the usual odious crevices of the left lamenting over exploitation, while in its usual conceited fashion glosses over the fact that their conerns where atleast due in part to the fact that their influence would be drastically reduced under a functional labiur legislations which froms the core of their grievance. -an underdeveloped farm sector thats been left to capitalists without an attempt to create a balanced system where the capital works with the government instead of own its own. And these are just the tips of the iceberg.
    1
  47.  @kuldeeprana1908  Labour laws merely got packaged. Its still the same old same. look at the provisions relating to firing employees they have merely expanded the number of employees you need to have to seek governments permission, compare that with tge US or China. Also Farm Laws ? what are you even talking about they got pulled out because of that crying little bitch Tikait, that guy has more wealth than the last 4 generations of my family put together times 10. India is condemned to ideological stupidities and self righteous jingoism with very little to no substance. Hell we cant even come up with a damn rifle or a hand gun. Its pathetic and depressing.
    1
  48. A first world country whose entire existence has been marked by an existential threat from across the strait. Plus they're an Island.(Islands are always a b**ch to invade eg: UK, Japan, Cuba.) PRC might win eventually but they will have to pay for every inch with blood which I am sure they're willing to spare. A victory even if its a pyrrhic one can do wonders in times of socioecononic upheavals.
    1
  49. @17:09 well thats the trade off isnt it. PAP cant afford to screw up, if anything that keeps them on their toes. This is not the US where any idiot like Trump/AOC/Sanders can make a bid for power, PAP is structured similar to a communist party in certain regards, instead of ideology they elect based on competancy(although putting LHL in the running was a bit dirty, he has proven himself to be a worth of his fathers legacy). The problem is Singaporeans are getting complacent, with economic inequality being a chief problem, even if it cant be solved reducing its worst effects can go a long way. Having lived in democracy i'd rather forsake some of my rights to a competantly run autocracy even if it doesmt have the longevity. Countries with much to lose are unlikely to elect idiots to power.
    1
  50. so you are suggesting that china is not an industrial powerhouse ?
    1