The late Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was a genius who was able to turn the small Asian nation into one of the wealthiest countries in the world by individualizing the welfare state, says bestselling author and investor James Dale Davidson.
Yew believed "that the welfare state was a big mistake, but he knew he had to run as a person of the left in order to make a career in politics in Singapore," Davidson told J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV on Monday.
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system — Click Here Now
The former prime minister died Monday at the age of 91. He is considered
Singapore's founding father because he helped the small city-state transition from a British colony to an independent nation.
Davidson said, "One of the things that he did is he changed the terms of the welfare state slightly and created individual accounts for people where you had to pay into your own medical program with a very high tax, a forced savings plan, and then you decided what level of service you wanted."
"So, you got to save a lot of money, and the reason that today's Singapore is wealthier than the United States on a per capita basis is because of all the capital that was accumulated instead of it being wasted as it would have been if it had been a welfare state, Medicare-type program," he explained.
"And this money didn't go into "one big tax pool just open for people to graze in where you have the 'tragedy of the commons,' as they say, and everybody lives at everybody else's expense or tries to," Davidson said.
"You're living at your own expense, and you put up the money and it's your money that you spend," he added.
According to Davidson, Yew once explained to him that those living in Singapore had a lot of choice over how their money was spent.
"He said, 'Look, if you want to go to the hospital and pay extra for an air-conditioned room . . . that's your privilege, go ahead. But if you'd rather save the money, save it,'" he explained.
"'And that's why in Singapore we have a choice. If you want air-conditioned rooms you pay for them out of your own money. If you don't, you're not paying for them out of somebody else's money,'" he added.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.