alt Hacker NewsI’d rather live in Singapore any day than US. I actually think a bit of surveillance and law enforcement is necessary. People in US think they can do whatever they want with no repercussions because “that’s their God given right”. Look at all the garbage in their streets. Try telling someone in US that they parked on 2 spots and see how quickly you get punched in the face. And so on. I’d rather have cameras and strict law enforcement than everyone thinking they can do whatever they want. I lived in Singapore and it was wonderful. Very safe and clean, could walk alone in the middle of the night with zero worries.
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Why are you not living there anymore? I understand the trade-offs, but I hate the feeling of constant surveillance. And knowing that I'm a minority in this subject, I'm aware that I'm probably going to be at the loser side in this battle. However, I'm still sad thinking that I could be a criminal in the future by being naked at my own house.
This assumes your government, or whoever is monitoring and handling said surveillance info, is doing so with good intentions and adequate security/privacy.
For some, that level of trust is unobtainable.
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There’s a difference between Singaporean, Chinese surveillance, and US surveillance. In the former countries you get surveilled, and in exchange you get to live in a safe, harmonious, and relatively prosperous society where you can leave your belongings out of sight knowing they’ll be there when you come back.
In the US you get no such benefits. The surveillance serves only the government.
I remember watching a video of LKY explaining how Singapore installed 'pee detectors' in elevators to stop people urinating. The point being that a little bit of surveillance to bootstrap civic sense can be a positive thing. Now, look at Singapore today, and it's almost unthinkable an average citizen would urinate in an elevator.
As someone from the UK I envy the safety of these countries. We have overbearing surveillance too but nothing to show for it. Phone gets snatched? Thief will never be caught. Leave your laptop out of sight for a moment? It will be stolen. If surveillance isn't serving the people, who is it serving?