Singapore can be a <i>very</i> uncomfortable place to live if you&#x27;re Singaporean, poor and unskilled, which is also precisely the combination that makes it virtually impossible to emigrate.<p>Every now and then the gov&#x27;t media accidentally lets the veil slip, as in a story about a retired old lady who worked as a hawker centre table cleaner with wages of around S$190 per month (around US$100, this in a country with higher cost of living than the US) and slept in a pile of cardboard boxes on a public housing block&#x27;s &quot;void deck&quot; (outdoor forecourt).  This wasn&#x27;t the story, mind you, since this is what happens to you if you have no retirement funds or family to support you in Singapore; the story was that somebody had stolen her S$90 of savings.