5 C's

Sorry, I've been so busy I haven't had time to write a new post for my blog, but at last here it is!

In this post I'm going to tell you something about the 5 C's of Singapore. To reach the highest echelons of the Singaporean societal ladder you need to be high on the ranking of the 5 C's. So what are these 5 C's? Some time ago this term started as a joke about the wide-spread materialism in Singapore, but has now become an established term in Singlish (Singapore-English). The 5 C's are the following: Cash, Car, Condo, Credit Card and Country Club. People in Singapore are basically rated according to these C's;

Cash: is self-explanatory, the more you have the higher on the food chain you are.

Car: is an 'ueber' status symbol here in Singapore as cars are, relative to other countries, extremely expensive. The base tax on a car is around 191%, excluding road tax and something called the Certificate of Ownership, which basically allows you to own and drive a car which is easily some double digit percentage of the value of your car. So you want, let's say a nice Volvo XC 90 SUV? Then you better be prepared to shell out $250,000 and that's without the sunroof option ;) This explains the strong connection of the car you drive in with the food chain ranking.

Condo: 84% of Singaporeans live in so called HDBs (Housing Development Board), which basically is government built and subsidized housing. Within HDBs you have a food-chain system as well basically linked to location. Some HDBs near the city centre are really pretty luxurious while others near the airport are much less attractive to live in and therefore are meant for the lower echelons of society. Condos however are where the affluent locals and expats live in. Basically they're pretty much hotels without the room service. So if you can afford a condo, you are doing very well. If however, you can afford a freestanding house with a garden, you are so much the shit you don't even have to look at your 5 C's anymore so the condo doesn't count for you anymore.

Credit Card: To apply for a Credit Card here in Singapore you need an income of at least $30,000 annually. However, there is a ranking within the CCs as well, such as Platinum, Elite, Gold, the whole deal. The level of your card therefore also plays a great role. It is of such importance that most banks here now even offer platinum cards for a much higher annual fee even if you don't really have enough on your account to be eligable. And people actually pay those fees in order to get a platinum....

Country Club: As there is very little empty open land in Singapore country clubs are very rare. The ones that do exist are therefore extremely exclusive. Some clubs even have waiting lists of several years. What helps is that you can usually sign up your 5 year old kid for a golf membership which kicks in when he turns 18/21 just to make sure he has a tee-off time on his birthday of course. Oh and don't forget you'll have to start paying a 'holding' fee for the years he has to wait. This is of course only available to people who are already members of course and already pay several tens of thousands of dollars a year to have the sticker on their windshield of their cars. (here in Singapore you need a sticker on the windshield of your car so the guard at the club can see you are a member, otherwise they will deny you entry). Therefore the more stickers you have on your windshield the higher on the food-chain you are.

So much for the latest lesson on Singaporean society!