Cash.
Credit Card.
Condo.
Car.
Country Club membership.

The 5C's. The very benchmark of many Singaporeans.

Why do so many Singaporeans set the 5C's as their lifetime goals?

Why is it that Singaporeans place wealth, fortune and any other materialistic items above anything else?

There are a few reasons behind this. There is the reason that today's society is very materialistic, pursuing dreams that are materialistic. Doing anything there is to do with materialism. That isn't much of a problem until people start going to extremes to acquire the wealth to attain the 5C's. Only then is it worrying.

However, even if people are doing honest work to acquire the 5C's, personally, I do not feel it is necessary to achieve the 5C's in life. Singaporeans, everybody actually, knows that what they truly want is not money, wealth and whatever materialistic things. They might think that they want all this when they do not have them, but...

Once they sit down, look around and admire their materialistic wealth and success, they will notice that they have no one beside them to enjoy it with them. I could relate this to a mid-life crisis but that is not the point. The point is: What is the point of being successful in a materialistic way if you can't enjoy with someone else?

You could be rich, famous, your face/name could be in Forbes Top 100 richest men/women... but you still would not have anybody beside you to share the wealth with.

You could be spending your entire life pursuing your materialistic dreams but in the end, you'd have been so caught up in your pursue of your materialistic dreams that you ignored and neglected all the people around you.

The end result?
A lot of hurt stirred up among the people around you. The pain that you cause, you have no idea about. The negligence that caused many things to happen to your loved ones, you had no idea of. The power of one dream is strong. Especially that of a materialistic one. It could drive you to do anything.
One such case is Venerable MingYi, the founder of the RenCi charity. He had used the funds that he acquired from the charity's fund-raising events to attain the 5C's. This was how terrible the power of his materialistic dreams were. He had used, manipulated people's kindness towards charities. He had used the hard-earned money meant to help THE POOR, SICK AND NEEDY. Does it sicken you not?

It is not wrong to want wealth. Petrol prices have been increasing, as there is a drop in the amount of fuel available. Food prices have been increasing because of the hard hit the economy received. If you do not want money, well, it's probably because you want to die.

If not, it means you want money and you, obviously, want to live. So the problem does not lie in 'wanting and getting money' as I have mentioned before. It lies in 'wanting and getting money in dirty, dishonest ways' and 'pursuing materialistic dreams to the extent that you neglect all who are around you'.

In conclusion, I do not think that the benchmark for Singaporeans should be the 5C's. Why?
Money, people say, is the root of all evil. And to attain the 5C's, you require money. It is alright to have money as I said before, just don't ge too close to it, or want to much of it.

Think of it this way... You don't need the 5C's to survive.
Just one. The cash.
The rest of the 4C's, you can forget all about as it will only make you fall deeper into the money pits...