两个最重要的原因？高昂的生活成本和不平等。新加坡已经连续五年被评为全球最昂贵的城市，超过纽约和伦敦。这主要是因为汽车税，使新加坡成为世界上购买和运行汽车的最昂贵的地方。它也是地球上购买衣服的第三贵的地方。
But personal care, household goods, and domestic help in Singapore tend to be less expensive than in other major cities.
但是在新加坡，个人护理，家庭用品和家政服务的价格往往比其他主要城市便宜。
While Singapore is rich in terms of GDP per capita, the median monthly salary is $3,270. That doesn’t sound too bad, but about 20 percent of that goes into a mandatory savings account. You can use that account to pay for medical bills, housing, and education, but it does restrict the purchasing power of the population.
新加坡的人均GDP很高，月薪中位数为3,270新币。听起来还不错，但是其中约有20％存入了强制性储蓄账户。您可以使用该账户支付医疗账单，住房和教育费用，但这确实限制了人们的购买力。
You’ve probably heard of the movie Crazy Rich Asians, which was set here in Singapore. And it’s no wonder. Because Singapore has about 184,000 millionaires, making it truly the land of the crazy rich. That’s great news.
你可能听说过在新加坡拍摄的电影《疯狂的亚洲富人》。这也就不足为奇了。因为新加坡有大约184,000名百万富翁，所以它确实是疯狂富人的土地。这真是个好消息。
But Singapore also has a fairly high rate of inequality, compared with other developed countries. Let’s look at the Gini coefficient, which is a scale used to calculate inequality, with zero being the most equal and one being the least.
但是与其他发达国家相比，新加坡的不平等率也很高。让我们看一下基尼系数，它是用于计算不平等程度的标度，其中0等于最大，而1等于最小。
Singapore’s Gini coefficient, after accounting for taxes and transfers, was 0.356 in 2017. That was worse than countries like the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and Germany, although it fared better than some, like the United States.
在计入税收和转移支付后，新加坡的基尼系数在2017年为0.356。这比英国，日本，韩国和德国等国家差，尽管表现要好于美国等国家。
Is that number that bad? That question had books like this flying off the shelves. A think tank ignited a public debate on the divide in social classes, after it found that on average, Singaporeans who live in public housing have fewer than one friend who lives in private housing. The government has called the issue of inequality a national priority, but it remains to be seen if it is a problem that can be tackled effectively.
这个数字真的那么糟糕吗？一个智囊团点燃了公众对社会阶层分化的争论，居住在组屋中的新加坡人拥有少于一个居住在私人公寓中的朋友。政府已将不平等问题称为国家优先事项，但是否能够有效解决这一问题尚待观察。
