title: Is performance a sufficient reason for having a singleton or static class?
body: <p>I have class that I believe should not be a singleton or static class.  It has state, albeit state that <em>could</em> be shared by consumers.  I like to stay away from singletons when there is shared state, but the argument I'm hearing is that I will reap performance benefits from only ever having 1 instance of the object exist at any given time.</p>
  
  <p>In my particular case, there is not a lot of data associated with this object -- two dictionaries with (at max) 150 entries in each and the dictionary.</p>
  
  <p>At what point--if at all--does the performance argument hold any merit?</p>
  
  <p>FYI - I'm using .NET.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>