SINGAPORE: Often praised as one of the safest, cleanest, and most efficient countries in the world, Singapore is a place many foreigners admire and even dream of moving to.
Yet behind the polished image and the global praise, one local recently pointed out a quieter, more uncomfortable reality — that the people who actually live here often feel trapped in an endless chase for success.
In a post on the r/SGexams forum, the local wrote that the rat race in Singapore starts from birth.
“The rat race here doesn’t even need a starting gun. It starts the moment you’re born. Your parents compare your speech milestones. Your teachers compare your grades. Your friends compare your lives, and one day you start comparing too, without even noticing,” he said.
“We run through every checkpoint thinking the next one will mean rest. PSLE. O-levels. Poly. Uni. Work. Promotion. Marriage. Kids. Retirement. But there’s always something next, it’s like climbing an endless staircase, and the only view is your own exhaustion…”
He also pointed out that the pressure does not fade with age. He said he sees uncles in kopitiams discussing their CPF payouts as if it is “the final exam” of their lives, and aunties lining up at polyclinics before the sun even rises because “growing old in Singapore feels like another system” they have to learn and navigate. “We joke about it, but deep down it’s just sad how even rest feels like something to earn,” he wrote.
The local added that while outsiders may interpret this constant striving as ‘ambition,’ he believes that most people only take part in the rat race because of fear. It isn’t passion that keeps them moving, but the quiet, heavy fear of falling behind. The fear of being seen as just “average” and the fear of letting down parents who worked themselves to the bone so their children could have a better life.
“Maybe we were never chasing success. Maybe we were just running from failure,” he continued.
“Everyone says, ‘We must keep going.’ But for what? For whom? We have built a country that runs perfectly, but nobody knows how to stop. Sometimes, I think life in Singapore feels like an endless group project that never ends. Everyone’s tired, everyone’s pretending to be fine, and no one remembers why we started in the first place. We have lost the plot.”
“We often underappreciate the perks of living in a peaceful society.”
Since being shared on Monday (Nov 24), the post has racked up 512 upvotes. In the comments, many readers said they could relate, saying life in the little red dot often feels like constantly chasing a moving goalpost.
One individual said, “This hits so bad; you just put into words what so many of us feel but can’t say. The endless checklist, the quiet exhaustion—it is sad how rest feels like a luxury here.”
Another remarked, “Of course, we have lost the plot. Even the brightest among us are worried about eking out a good living here in Singapore. They are just thinking of how to make sure they make enough money to leave the rat race behind and FIRE.”
A third added, “Thanks to Singapore’s monocentric meritocracy, we are stuck in an arms race that will never end. It will only end under two conditions: you achieve financial success, or you burn out mentally/physically and exit from the race.”
Not everyone, however, shared the same bleak view. One wrote, “I think we have it easier here, though. Having seen the people in China/Korea, they’re way more competitive. Not saying ours is not stressful, but I am glad to be born here.”
Another explained, “To be honest, yes, we are in an exhaustive and exigent rat race, but we don’t need to deal with natural disasters, cartels, shootings, wars, and so on. I feel that a lot of my friends like to overexaggerate this rat race, which is true, but we often underappreciate the perks of living in a peaceful society.”
In other news, a senior commuter who’s in her late 60s took to social media to complain about a bus driver who deliberately refused to let her alight at her intended stop.
Sharing her experience on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook group, the commuter, Facebook user Cherry Chacko, said the incident took place early in the morning while she was taking bus service 23.
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