The fact is that the end result of these surveys is an average.
The US has much higher taxes but a far higher $ for $ standard of living. In the US you would swap a small, noisy concrete box for a detached house with a large garden and possibly a private pool.
Singapore has much lower taxes but a very low quality of life in most other ways, especially in terms of accommodation, car ownership, general space and activities etc.
On a cultural level I won't comment as that anyway isn't part of these surveys.
If one day the US and the West generally manage to sort out their debt problems then they may be abler to lower taxes. This will dramatically alter the balance and probably result in a lot pf business leaving Singapore. Singapore is highly dependent on foreign business and skilled foreign workers. When they begin to leave there will be very little left of value.
In terms of property Singapore depends on these highly paid foreigners as well as currently low interest rates and relatively backward state of the neighbouring countries. When the West recovers and is able to lower its taxes something else will also have happened...interest rates will have risen. The nehghbouring countries may take decades to move ahead but Singapore may well be faced with a perfect storm in a few years once today's rather unusual conditions have normalised.
And Singapore will just sit there passively for years and let all these changes occur, watch as the world passes them by?
Your argument is flawed because it assumes that the whole world is dynamic, is learning, striving, improving, but Singapore is sitting there stoically, watching all this happen.
Singapore, being small and flexible will adapt as the global landscape changes, they will reinvent themselves if they have to. They have in the past and they are, in fact, as we speak.
That's not to say they'll have their share of dips, there was a one during 2003/4. But they came out stronger than ever.
P.S. I'm not Vulcan
