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As someone who comes from a third-world country (Nigeria), I’ll trade some liberty for safety, a stable society, and prosperous economy at any time.

But I guess it’s different for Westerners that already have a lot of liberties and material success to begin with.

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On the other hand, Singapore is the only developed dictatorship in the world so while this trade could work, it's much more likely to fail. Usually, dictatorships go in hand with poor prosperity.

Would you consider the Gulf Arab countries to exist along the same spectrum as Singapore, but "further down" in terms of oppressiveness?

I would not consider them developed and I honestly doubt they will ever be, they are not going in this direction that's for sure.

I was asking because they are other dictatorships with high prosperity; even more prosperous, I think, but worse places to live overall. Not to mention that their prosperity is not sustainable, but that's kind of ancillary.

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