Hmm..
This is what I have been talking all along.......that the high
property cost, high cost of living, and long working hours, all
contribute to the low marriage rate and low birthrate.
Just take a look at the experience of this lady. This is exactly
the same experience faced by hundreds of thousands of other young
people.
This is why the birthrate and marriage rate are low.
In order to solve the low birthrate and marriage rate, and as a
matter of fact, in order to make people more holistic, happy, and
have a true, real, high standards of living, there needs to be a
total rethink.
People cannot be taken as robots or cows.
There must be some changes and new paradigms. The current system
is broken.
There must be conscious and deliberate effort to make life more
family friendly.
First, there must be strict enforcement of maximum working hours
per week.
Second, there must be a complete overhaul of the housing system.
The status quo will not do. Housing supply and regulation must be
tailored in a way which encourage and promote family creation.
Third, CPF must be completely re-evaluated. Right now with the
current system, there are some people who use up CPF to buy homes.
Again, what is the purpose of this government mandated and state
managed savings and pension system, and why is it connected to the
housing which are also managed by the state? Looks like people must
live their lifes to become cashcows and forever trapped to serve
the state, in all the stages of their lifes.
Singapore's leadership and smart political and bureacracy elite
class, have completely dropped the ball.
This is a rot, a serious problem which plague the society, for a
long time already.
There are many other Mellissas out there, facing
difficulties.
I dont think the leadership ever taken a serious comprehensive
outlook to evaluate this problem.
The biggest stupidity they ever came up with, is by giving
several thousand dollars as "baby bonus" to tackle this issue.
How can several thousands dollars cash payment do anything?
Can several thousand dollars make Melissa's working hours
shorter? Can it be sufficient to even do anything meaningful to
their housing payment? Can it do anything?
People are suffering. It is an illusion that Singapore is a
"first world developped country" with best port, best airport, high
GDP numbers, etc, but in reality, there are many poor people, there
is a growing rich-poor divide (one of the worlds worst Gini
coefficient), and 85% of population live in small chicken coops,
forever paying monthly payment to the state and working ever longer
working hours.
The current system will not do.
I agree.. But this melissa teacher is a very bad example to
illustrate such point.