You really don't need a car to live in Singapore. Most of the time, driving will take you longer than getting on the metro. Remember that Singapore is an extremely small country and you can easily commute to anywhere on the island with a pushbike (even in the rain, most offices have showers).
Renting or buying property is the expensive part of living in Singapore. However, it is quite inexpensive to get a live-in maid/nanny.
That being said, it's also a little unfair to use it as a standard reference point, given that it's a small city-state which also happens to be the best-placed trading port in the world. Singapore is an outlier - when you can take the cream off an inordinate amount of trade pouring past, you don't need as much income tax.
