SINGAPORE is considered a relatively safe country for investment and has a robust portfolio of growth since its independence in 1965. She virtually transformed from a fishing village to a Multi-national and cultural hub in a short spam of 43 years.
Such growth is remarkable for a country with only an estimated population of 4million people and total land mass of 699.4 sq km.
One would often wonder how all these came about. Of course, many locals who went through the education system and studied the subject Social Studies will cover the topic on how Singapore developed.
While it will be laborious and boring to bring those factors up and explaining them, it is often important to keep in mind the rough road we took to be at where we are.
Besides a good government via good leaders, Singapore’s growth also has to be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of our forefathers. They landed on the shores of a strange land with the keen desire to create.
Creation is the beginning of all things.
There is no growth without creation. Our forefathers create something out of nothingness and built us a beautiful country.
But as this creation grows, the spirit of creation is eroded. Comfort and complacency blinded our eyes, giving us the illusion that our utopia is here to stay.
We indulge ourselves in empty promises given by unscrupulous speculators, hoping to reap something out of nothing instead of creating it.
Ever since the beginning of commerce, there has always been a rise and fall in the economy, be it on a small local scale or global. Man had been trying to prevent a crash whenever a market is at its peak. But if we look at the cause of the peak in the market, we can easily understand why market crashes is the inevitable. Such is the ways of nature. It is a cycle that man will always fight to get out of, but fail.
Every time a market crashes, it is those with the true wisdom of creation who picks up the pieces and rebuilds the economy.
As the rebuilding process accelerates base on creation, “freeloaders” hop onto the “meat” wagon hoping to get a share of “meat”.
These freeloaders sold credits in promise of “meat” that was never theirs. Their speculation of the value of “meat” pushed the price to sky high. All these, done on empty credits with no backing of any sort.
With increased values of credits, they gave out more credits in promise of “meat” to unwary common people.
When the market reaches another peak, these common people wanting to get out of the market either because of retirement or in need of solid assets, they started claiming their “meat”.
As there was little creation since the speculators hopped on, there was not enough “meat” to go around, thus, the common people could not receive what they paid for.
Resulting in the fall of speculators and thus the whole economy as it had become.
No matter what industry is concerned, it has always been this way. We cease to create once we took things for granted. We dig a hole and bury our heads in it, thinking that everything will keep going up.
But the sad truth is that the moment the gap between solid assets and credits widen, it is the beginning of the end. The irony is that even when man realizes the mistakes and the cause of the mistake, things will always happen again, just that it will wear another disguise.
Thus the saying: History repeats itself.
Therefore, the one thing one can do is to be prepared for when things come crashing down, so that one can be those who are picking up the pieces and rebuilt the true “meat” wagon for personal prosperity.
I wrote this after reading a book which I can't remember what title it was. Will update if I come across the book again. The book was about the story of John Law, father of finance(for more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Law_(economist). This draft is subjected to further refinement as my journey to understand money gets more in depth.
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