Singapore’s richest 1% of households hold about 14% of the country’s total household wealth. The top 5% hold about 33%. At first glance, those numbers sound striking. They naturally raise questions about fairness, opportunity, and whether Singapore is becoming a society where wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top. But as with most things involving money, the real story is more nuanced. Singapore does have wealth inequality. That should not be brushed aside. Wealth tends to accumulate over time, compound through assets, and pass from one generation to the next. At the same time, Singapore’s numbers are not unusually extreme when compared with other advanced economies. Senior Minister of State for Finance Jeffrey Siow said Singapore’s top 1% wealth share is “broadly comparable” with advanced economies with similar levels of wealth inequality. CNA also reported that the top 1% in major economies such as Australia, Japan and South Korea held at least 20% of national wealth, while the figure for the United States was 35%....