Singapore will not be another Detroit

Detroit City was one of the richest American city in the 60s and 70s. Ford, GM and Chrysler made it their homes and provided hundreds of thousands of well paying jobs to create a rich middle class of Americans driving ultra big cars and tearing down the highways with petrol costing only a few cents. What a good life.
 
Detroit has just declared bankrupt with a debt of US$18b and unable to pay. I thought this is too small an amount for bankruptcy. Maybe Temasek or GIC should pay for it and buy over the City. The automobile industry was long gone, the houses and factories left vacant to rot. Two main factors contributed to the fall of a one time rich and prosperous city. It happened.
 
The first is high wages. Japan took over and sold cheap Japanese cars to replace the American hunks. Cheaper Japanese labour and even cheaper labours elsewhere just made the American workers not competitive with their high wages.
The second factor was debt. The city incurred huge debt that it could not repay without the big industrial base supporting it. The demand for housing fell when jobs disappeared and the population shifted out. And very likely many homes were just abandoned or disposed off under fire sales.
 
Singapore will never be another Detroit on these two factors alone. We don’t have overpriced Singaporean workers. We only have overpriced govt and this is unlikely to bankrupt the City like Detroit. If there are overpriced workers, and if they are not competitive, they can easily be replaced by cheaper foreign workers all the way to top management level. So Singapore is safe. Not sure about the fate of Singapore workers.
 
As for debt, Singapore has very big debt, among the highest in the world. But the debt is being dissipated by several schemes. Whatever the Govt owes to the people through the CPF saving schemes, a large part has been redeemed through selling exorbitant priced public flats back to the people. And whatever still owed to the people, the minimum sum schemes will ensure that there is very little chance of the need to pay back for at least the next 20 or 30 years. And if the minimum sums can keep spiraling up to a million or two or more, then there is really no need to pay back at all, or at very minimum sum that will be very bearable.
 
The Singapore Govt thus will have no debt despite owing a lot of money to the people through the CPF savings scheme. All the debt is either redeemed or deferred to perpetuity, to till the cow comes home.
 
The only debt is incurred by the people through expensive housing and cars and high medical bills. The state is debt free and will not be another Detroit. The State or City of Singapore will always be rich, with free supply of cheap labour and with the Singaporeans funding the debt through their life savings.