‘Just casually dropping he has a butler’: S’poreans share moments they realised ‘class divide’ was real

Redditor realises class divide through school friends’ lavish holidays

Ever wondered why some classmates jetted off to Europe during the June holidays while you were stuck deciding between East Coast Park or your cousin’s flat in Woodlands?

A viral thread on the r/askSingapore subreddit posted on 5 July hit home for many Singaporeans after a Redditor posed a thought-provoking question:

When did you first realise that you weren’t in the same socioeconomic class as someone else?

OP learnt about ‘class divide’ in school

For the OP, the moment of realisation came when they were still in school.

They recalled being baffled by how some peers regularly travelled to “faraway places” for holidays.

Only years later did the pieces fall into place: these friends were simply “set up for success”.

“Many were set up for success from day one e.g. parents buying landed homes near schools to get them in,” they wrote.

That memory triggered a flood of relatable, and sometimes jaw-dropping, stories from other users who had their own moments of social-class clarity.

Netizens share eye-opening encounters with wealth

One Redditor said they discovered the divide when they realised a classmate had a chauffeur.

That moment sparked an awkward conversation with their dad, who said hard work could earn them a chauffeur someday.

Another said their jaw dropped during National Service (NS), when a fellow recruit casually mentioned that they had a butler.

Another Reddit user said the realisation of the “class divide” happened when they had to fill up the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme form at the start of every school term.

Meanwhile, one netizen revealed it was when a secondary school classmate said they had never taken public transport before.

In 2023, the Workers’ Party (WP) chief, Pritam Singh, said redistributing wealth is a must to avoid class division and the emergence of “two Singapores”.

He was referring to a Singapore split in two: one for the high earners, and another where the majority face limited social mobility.

He pointed to a 2017 Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) report, which found that class, rather than race or religion, could be the biggest source of social division in Singapore.

Also read: CNA Documentary Shows That The Class Divide Is Real In Singapore

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Featured image adapted from pixelshot on Canva & Businessclass.com, both for illustration purposes only.