This penalization of car transport is balanced by the provision of efficient subway and bus services, which, surprisingly, are not subsidized. This careful attention to meeting the physical and material needs of the population is matched by equal care and concern for the people's social and spiritual needs. In this, however, Singapore has consciously moved away from the welfare-state prescriptions of OECD societies. There are no homeless, destitute or starving people in Singapore. Remarkably, the poorest 5 percent of households have about the same levels of ownership of homes, television sets, refrigerators, telephones, washing machines and video recorders as the national average.
Singaporean society emphasizes the importance of the family.
Government policies are skewed in favor of encouraging extended families to live in the same neighborhood. These policies also encourage families to care for their own elderly. The traditional Asian emphasis on clan and kinship provides a valuable social glue, even as society modernizes and develops. An equally strong emphasis is placed on multi-racial harmony, given the experience with racial riots before independence. Every Singaporean child has to be bilingual, and there is no ethnic discrimination in school or in the civil service.