So in fact the policy Singapore has is the same as Western nations, with the only difference that Singapore happened to have money saved.

How do you get that as being a coincidence? The very same things that make a nation spend prudently are the ones that make it have a reserve fund in the first place! What's America's emergency reserve fund? There isn't one -- just the possibility of borrowing more. (Not necessarily a bad move for a nation with the US's credit rating, but still.)

I bring this up in part because it parallels the differences between US states. Some states had to get backdoor bailouts through grants for projects, while others (like Texas) only had the budget problem of "couldn't contribute as much to the rainy day fund (a real account) this time". The very concept is foreign to e.g. California.

Yeah, yeah, mind = killed, etc.