兩個最重要的原因？高昂的生活成本和不平等。新加坡已經連續五年被評為全球最昂貴的城市，超過紐約和倫敦。這主要是因為汽車稅，使新加坡成為世界上購買和運行汽車的最昂貴的地方。它也是地球上購買衣服的第三貴的地方。
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，個人護理，家庭用品和家政服務的價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，月薪中位數為3,270新幣。聽起來還不錯，但是其中約有20％存入了強制性儲蓄帳戶。您可以使用該帳戶支付醫療帳單，住房和教育費用，但這確實限制了人們的購買力。
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.
你可能聽說過在新加坡拍攝的電影《瘋狂的亞洲富人》。這也就不足為奇了。因為新加坡有大約184,000名百萬富翁，所以它確實是瘋狂富人的土地。這真是個好消息。
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.
但是與其他已開發國家相比，新加坡的不平等率也很高。讓我們看一下基尼係數，它是用於計算不平等程度的標度，其中0等於最大，而1等於最小。
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.
在計入稅收和轉移支付後，新加坡的基尼係數在2017年為0.356。這比英國，日本，韓國和德國等國家差，儘管表現要好於美國等國家。
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.
這個數字真的那麼糟糕嗎？一個智囊團點燃了公眾對社會階層分化的爭論，居住在組屋中的新加坡人擁有少於一個居住在私人公寓中的朋友。政府已將不平等問題稱為國家優先事項，但是否能夠有效解決這一問題尚待觀察。
