With the high cost of living, income inequality, relentless stress, and often toxic work culture, it’s no wonder that many Singaporeans feel hesitant about raising children. Government policies often come with restrictive regulations and strict eligibility criteria that fail to address the real struggles people face daily. Given all these issues, Singaporeans are making the right choice by focusing on their happiness rather than sacrificing their quality of life to follow the government’s call to have more children. Taking care of oneself in such challenging circumstances is not just sensible; it’s essential.
Nordic countries show us that even with excellent working and living conditions, there's no stopping to the declining birth rate in developed nations. This is just unavoidable and the only solution is immigration so far to prevent societal collapse. Thankfully Singapore is located in SEA which still has sustainable birth rate.
There is also the fact that our housing spaces are getting smaller and yet more expensive. Too many individuals that want to remain single and enjoy their lives, not willing to invest in a future generation.
@@hitthedeck4115 As a country becomes more educated the fertility rate will decline. This isn't just a developed nation issue anymore when we look at how developing Asia is facing a fertility crisis too. Thailand has the second lowest fertility rate in SEA and it is a developing nation. Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in Asia, has a fertility rate of 1.95 which is below replacement level. The only reason they brought their fertility rate down is due to educating their people which allowed the government to teach their people about family planning, including contraception. So fertility decline isn't something can be avoided, it's going to happen. The goal should be to maintain a low fertility rate instead of letting it drop which is what's happening everywhere. If a nation can maintain a fertility rate of 1.9, still below replacement level, that would be good as opposed to letting it drop to below 1 which is what's happening in Singapore and South Korea.
housing and education are very expensive, in terms of monetary, time, and effort. having child is a heavy responsibility. progressive country like SG are emphasizing on individual success to bring honor to family. but it's rare for them to talk how the family itself will support individual that want to start a family with newborn child. People and the government need to start realizing that nurturing future generation is not individual responsibility, it's partly collective responsibility to provide a great environment to nurture the future generations.
Given the number of "million dollar" HDB news every now and then, how many "average" Singaporean family still dare to give birth? How many "average" Singaporean actually care about the declining birth rate when we struggle to even put food on our table?
We on the ground know the issues but the geniuses in government use this to justify their immigration policies and think the only issue is HDB. If they are able to tackle the fundamental issues of happiness, livelihood, inflation, then we will have kids. Don't get me wrong, it is not easy, but the 1st step is to want to genuinely address the problem, recognize it, recognize the failures, be open to suggestions and work towards Singaporeans' happiness. This is a country of people, not a company. And if it was a company, the government would have been fired many times over. This population problem has been known for decades. Did we not read about it in our population demographics geography lessons?
How is a million dollar HDB bad thing? People BTO and sell for a lot. If your income ceiling is too high to BTO then you’re not an average family anymore
As an old man, born in 1946, I have experienced real poverty, (just after the World War) that not the present young generation experienced and appreciate. As to whether you want to have any children, think FOUR, FIVE or SIX times. Having a child is easy, raising a child is another issue. Do you want your child to grow up to my age, to clean the toilet like me to make a living? THINK carefully your money. Can you afford ? Talk is easy, do is difficult
The lady/person in red polo shirt is so intelligent. Everything she says makes so much sense. Realistic and empathetic at the same time. What a brilliant person!
Thats why she is a 'part time teacher'. Real teachers 1) Would not have the time to even walk around getting interviewed. 2) Would not be dumb enough to say yes to an interview since its against certain guidelines.
There is a reason that there is a low birth rate. I have a Singaporean HR person (female, no kids) and am currently pregnant. She told me "I can't understand why your pregnancy is so difficult." Reluctant to make me take leaves while suffering severe morning sickness. She also told me women in Singapore are "tough" since they could continue working even while experiencing bad symptoms. I can just imagine how understanding they are about women with children. Maybe a little compassion and sympathy for pregnant women would help?
I feel like the reasoning on why we need kids is to support the againg population. To me it feels like a generational burden at this point. Maybe we all suffer a bit and let the suffering end in our generation instead of passing it to our unborn children thus continuing the curse
I don't even have the job security to pay for housing, what makes you think I can afford kids? Government really naive to think these policies are enough
I moved out of Singapore this year after 4 years. It’s not a place to start a family, the amount of greed everywhere is too high. Jobs are average as well (compared to Europe) and startups are well, not that innovative.
It’s a crisis for the gov and the rich bcus they need people to 1. Work for them 2. Serve them 3. Take care of them so yeah. If you’re poor, you know where you belong. Having kids to continue to this cycle? Don’t worry there’s still plenty. Any kind of suffering ends with me, the end
I think for young people it looks like a daunting task to get married and start a family. I myself was overwhelmed by the expectations especially when I'm the eldest child in my family. My plans were to take one step at a time and it didnt go beyond having children tbh. My two children are now in sec school and it is not easy raising and supporting them. Every stage of their lives are a challenge for us. There's no parenting handbook and we have to read up books and material from the internet. Plus it's not something we can give up half way. Life isnt always a bed of roses for sure, there are ups and downs. We have to think twice when it comes down to finances. Other than that there are the pressure from expectations. People expect parents to be role models and what not. I mean we are human beings too. For me I think the commitment must be there but when it comes to our country's population we have to first put food on our table before we could think of such issue. End of the day it really depends on how our country will want to commit themselves into helping its citizens start a family and have children. It cannot be a one time handout for sure. It must be a long term commitment like what we give to our children. The talk about the issue has always been there and giving out citizenship seems like quick fix. So the question is what if the people stop coming? What's next? (PS: our new pm doesnt even have a child, how to talk to citizens about having more babies? The family policy maker who is a single lady isnt even married. How would she know about the struggles of married couples? Pls lead by example for Sgp sake. Don't just tell people what to do.)
Broadly, Parents want to give their children a better life than what they had experienced - generally, the goal for most parents. But we've come to a (tipping) point where our children's future is looking to be more bleak than what we have now. Houses are getting smaller, competition is still ever increasing.
Why is it over? In many countries in the world, (when you're earning the local wage) it's not possible to support a family of 4 on 1 person's wage. Some people even have to work 2 jobs.
@ this is a competitive world, if u can’t give them the best they will only be miserable in the future. Giving birth just for the sake of the population is just stupid imo
@@darinherrick9224 What's wrong with there being no world? After you die, would you have any problem if there is no world? We're all slaves here, anyway.
Our forefathers and mothers decided to have children because they believe they can give us the best they can AFFORD. Not having the best doesn't mean that life will be miserable. I happen to think it makes one more driven, resilient and innovative, having come from a less than ideal background.
Despite our declining birth rate and aging population, our population actually recently hit a high of 6 million so I’m gonna go on a hot take and say that we actually need to reduce our population so I would actually encourage more people whether it’s local citizens or expats to leave Singapore otherwise we will be overpopulated. I would encourage Singaporeans to look to life outside of Singapore, yes I know it’s not easy and many Singaporeans like to stay in their comfort zone but because we’ve all only got one life, we should get out there to explore and expand our horizons instead of being trapped in this Singapore bubble.
PAP going for 10m population leh, born and bred here Singaporeans already a minority, now SG became foreigner land, with them draining the country's resources till there is nothing left then off to the next opportunity elsewhere. Only money talks here, and increasing PAP's coffers.
That's not how you do it since you'll be left with a higher percentage of old people. A more aging population means that the productive part of society needs to work harder, which you want to avoid in the first place.
@@fion3943 that’s why I tell all my foreign friends Singapore isn’t a country, it’s a corporation. The Singapore identity, the kampong spirit is as good as going to be extinct. But anyway since I’ve travelled abroad a couple of times, my perspectives have opened up and I just can’t see myself living and working in Singapore in the long term (I will only come back to visit friends and family but other than that, I’ve got no other reasons for wanting to return).
My lates 30-40s colleagues in my workplace are those who make more than enough money to support more children, but are simply too busy to spend time with them. Like my boss lady, Im guessing hers and her husband salary is like minimum 5digits each per month, but must balance super hard to be there for their child, time and emotion wise. On the other side, there are those that have time, but just not enough income to even think of that. There are way too many things at play lol, I'm dating my 2 yrs bf now and still feel like enjoying our dating life for a few more years. Can't even imagine changing to another phase. You get more time to build your own life, figuring out yourself, more money to enjoy and focus on yourself, adulting is like a "me time" now and no a lot of ppl willing to let that go.
The bottom line is this thing called “Quality of Life”. The system must allow people to have kids without much negative impact to their quality of lives.
This is a global problem. Society is no longer set up for families. Both people need to work full time just to afford basic life necessities. Who has time and leftover funds for children?
You have a single second finance minister, you have a Prime Minister/Finance Minister who does not have children. You think they know how to apportion money and tax subsidy for families? They will just follow a bunch of academic papers, and not really experiencing the truth of the research and resolving the problem. And if you have policymakers who are not able to empathise with childrearing, how to design and create policies that engender a sustainable population? Correction: One of the Second Finance Minister has 4 children. We will come to regret in 20 years, when the whole world has an ageing population, we will run out of people to import. As for those people who think they want a career, good for you. While you and your husband slog away at your job, the maid in your condo (that you're slogging for) is the Mistress of the House, enjoying the fruits of your labour and time with your children.
Exactly, the maid in the house is enjoying life but somehow Asian boss ran a previous video insinuating that they are slaves. They can’t be more wrong.
Any regular person who has basic understanding of math can sit down to list and break down the cost of living from getting a decent education, getting a home and maintaining a job and just basic necessities. The amount you will come up to is staggering. My income is sgd3500 after cpf and I single also have very little left over after the usual giving parents money, food and savings. The people earn less than me I feel even worse.
Me as Asian (Filipino-Chinese), we want to establish like, everything we had to stable without worrying, so our belief was we wanted to experience life between poor or rich life difference, and we feel like we want to experience like having a privileged life, despite of everything was expensive in different countries, and yes, it hard to maintain honestly, especially if you're not stable financially, and start have own family, for us it's very burden and challenging sometimes, despite of highest cost
In capitalism, every year needs to grow (infinite); once growth stops, the game is over. Most people would favor self-development over family growth. When people think of develop a family usually near retirement, given nowadays Mass Layoff is a things, naturally people will feel insecure no matter how well they did. But nowadays many country start to realize they need better worker protection in order to balance growth and family growth, but often avoid the real cause and proceed to immigration, If the root cause yet to solve everything will be the same.
Nordic countries show that you can't cure, or reverse, a declining birth rate with better working and living condition. Only immigration is the solution so far.
previous generation anyhow give birth to a football team without caring about finances, next gen suffers poverty , lesson learnt . Do not settle for less or not suffer same fate as parents.We learnt it the hard way. and also you need to reach a certain level in career to be financially adequate to start a family... love also not easy to find, dating takes time what if u invest on the wrong person... takes more time , reach 30s prime is over , just be single at that point.
People are not having children because of high opportunity cost esp for women. There needs to be a shift in mindset and culture to respect and support mothers by giving longer paid maternity leaves without risk of losing her career. For e.g. in canada, we have paid maternity leave for 12mo - 18mo. Mothers are also protected by employment law to ensure they will not be discriminated or dismissed by her company. I feel sad for the children in singapore as they often are away from their parents for long hours every day since a young age, being cared for by instituitionalized care (daycare, after school care) which will never measure up to caregiving by their own parents. This will create attachment issue making our kids less resilient. There are things that shouldnt be outsourced. Unfortunately, the government will never encourage longer paid maternity leave or for one parent to be a stay at home parent since this would undermine the competitiveness of the country with half the workforce of reproductive age staying home to focus on child rearing or on maternity leave.
Well said, I got terminated for no reason after returning from my 2nd 2-month maternity break even though I had made it a point to return to work two months after giving birth to help the company and only went on the 2nd break when my baby was 7 months old. All the government-linked agencies like MOM, TAFEP and TADM could only say that there was nothing wrong with my company as they had paid 1 month salary in lieu of notice which they have the right to do so as per my employment contract and that's even with appeal from an MP and our dear ex-PM L who said they will write to MOM to get them to investigate on the matter. At the end of the day, all I received from TADM was, if I would like recourse, "please file with the Small Claims Tribunal". Who would have the time to pursue this matter with the SCT when one's most pressing needs is to secure another source of income to pay for your baby's milk powder, diapers, infant care fees etc. Even with the new unemployment support that they plan to roll out next year, $6k support over a course of 6 months is simply a joke. At $1k per month while still having to attend courses and what not, it's not even enough for 1 person much less a family.
Average Singaporean here. Just had my first child. Honestly I would love a second but high cost and also my wife's age are the 2 main factors stopping me from having a second.
Just try for second one. I have 4 kids when I still renting flat from HDB. Now I have a bigger house. Kids will push your limits. If I have no kids I think I still stay in HDB.😂
I think the thing with birth rate is showing symptoms and not root cause. Generally speaking, fertility is decreasing, it has direct relations to stress. Many people want kids but are not able to have kids. If you look at the data, you'd notice that the poorer the country, the higher the birthrate. I have no idea why, but I highly doubt that it is purely a matter of wanting or not wanting. It's not like you have sex and you immediately have a baby.
No one dare to admit its mainly about cultural shift. Peoples more and more individualistic. High living cost are only excuse. I dont want to trade my carreer and hobbies for children.
After experiencing the Singapore grind, some feel it is not fair to raise a child only to have them suffer a similar outcome. Child rearing are now just numbers for the capitalist workforce, even the interviewers inadvertently link children with economy. Made more evident by the immigration policies rather than to create a more holistic environment.
The teacher being so out of touch with the demographic reality truly speaks to the declining quality of our education system and our cynical mistrust of academia. If push comes to shove, the only pragmatic solution for the lack of human capital in the impending decades is for Singapore to open its doors to foreigners to fill the unoccupied positions. But they can't do so in a reckless manner or they'll risk destroying the country's social fabric, like with what we're witnessing in Europe. Most people aren't thinking about how their existing actions will affect future generations because most people's priorities are about survival and caring for their own livelihood. But with a problem like declining birth rates, you won't feel the effects of it until it's too late. This is why mitigation is so important. The paradox of declining birth rates and economic prosperity is observable in virtually every first-world country. As a population becomes more educated and the standard of living increases, we see less couples choosing to have kids. People start to prioritize their careers over childbearing as life expectancies grow, and this encourages couples to delay starting a family even further. The grandma is right about entertainment's influence on how young people choose to operate. During her generation, there weren't nearly as many distractions to occupy time. We now have an infinite number of other things that we can do instead of following the linear path. It's both a blessing and a curse. Marriage has fallen out of favor largely because of the modern dating market. Before we had the Internet, people were forced to date within their immediate communities because that was the full extent of their dating pool. Now, people think they have infinite options thanks to dating apps, so there's much less of an incentive to lock down with one person when there's a possibility that someone better could come along. I vehemently disagree with the notion that we "don't need relationships" and are able to grow independently. Man is a social animal. We crave human connection, both platonically and romantically. We aren't built to live reclusive lives. This is partially why so many people in our generation are reporting depression/anxiety symptoms. People shouldn't be coerced into having children, but the notion that society should pivot from viewing childbearing as a duty is callous and dangerous. If our collective goal is to preserve humanity, we should aspire to having kids instead of prioritizing our own individual desires first. Otherwise, we will reap what we sow. For women, it would be ideal to have kids before 30 because of potential fertility issues, but men have a lot more leeway in this regard. Marriage is also becoming increasingly delayed, as reflected in the stats.
Yeah Mate. I complete agree with all you stated. I can tell you that people are really out of touch with the real situation. Growing up I used to see and hear of many women having babies when in my country we had 2.5-2.0 birth rate. now it has gone to 1.48 And we can point out many situations unthinkable 30 years ago like a hospital in a big city of 450 thousand missing a whole week without any birth (city is also has oldest population in Brazil).
Having children are expensive, take a lot of effort and time. Not to mention for the sandwiched class, we have to provide for our elderly parents who have no savings and our children as well as save up for our own retirement. Add job insecurity due to rampant retrenchment and foreign "talents" influx crowding out jobs, it can be a bleak working condition in the future.
Think the prople interviewed here are quite wise and well-thought on the consequences. Besides big stress of living in Sg, and everything needs money here. It is not like we own large farmland, need many ppl. even our flats are so tiny. I think even single salary, with some parents to feed, is tough already, not to mention additional mouths and if later need to buy house and car some more. Jobs are hard to find, and uncertain also. People who prefer fur kids, at least they can help relax the mind, seeing and having to deal with too many people just makes one crazy.
It is also about economic. Back then was a farming society, baby are deem as asset. Becos they provide manpower. Nowadays, baby are deem as burden. There is no asset value. Yes singapore literacy level is high. That is y everyone know what to do.
Some context such as a plot of the cost of living / housing cost change over the years plus the birth rate stats might be helpful to see the correlation. There are several interviewers think not being able to support the younger generation is the source of the birth rate decline.
Out of curiosity, I did some quick Googling of SG birth rates in the last 10 years. While it's true that there's been a steady decline since 2014, especially in 2020 and 2021 (due to pandemic, I presume), there was a healthy bounce back in 2022 and 2023 before it dips low again in 2024. If I have to guess, to echo the sentiments of the people in the video, the economy is the biggest culprit here. What's happening in SG (inflation, rising living costs, stagnant wages) is happening all over the world, but since SG is so small, the effects of those things are magnified tenfold, it seems. So much so, that it affects the birth rates. I'm optimistic that once the economy gets better and people find their finances to be viable to start a family, they would do so. There are many negative sentiments being said about Singaporeans, but I do believe they still have a lot of heart, and having a family remains the goal for many of them. And I'm sure the SG government being the frighteningly efficient and extraordinarily rich entity that it is, they'd come up with various initiatives and programs that will support its civilians to reproduce. So, yeah. Give it 2-3 years, I would say. I hope things will get better for SG!
In today's world, there isn't an urgent need to increase the population; we are not in a crisis that demands it. Historically, we've seen population booms after periods of intense hardship, like world wars. After these crises, the world experiences a sense of relief and renewed optimism, leading to a surge in births as people feel secure enough to invest in future generations. But in the current climate of relative peace and stability, we don’t see that same drive. When we examine historical population trends, we notice significant growth following major conflicts. As peace returns, people feel a renewed sense of happiness and security, which inspires them to start or expand families. But today, in a world without the constant reminder of insecurity and instability, this instinct isn’t triggered as strongly. In a sense, experiencing and then overcoming global fears can heighten the joy people feel in peaceful times. It’s a contrast effect-after facing the hardships of war, people tend to appreciate and invest in peace more deeply. While we may not actually wish for crises to spur growth, it’s an interesting reflection on human nature and how we respond to challenges.
@abhaykothari3000 The world is not overpopulated. It’s crazy that people would just say that and not adress the issues of wealth inequality, consumerism, waste, lack of recycling, planned obsolescence and so much more !
Singapore's population issue is not a numerical one, but a structural one. If you can't increase the bottom, you can also remove the top. Many don't think this through, but longevity is also one contributing factor. Imagine a working population having to support the retired generation across 50 years against one that is across 20 years.
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Singapore is a tiny city-state without any single ethnicity and is cosmopolitan. It is a rich nation and a magnate for immigrants, therefore it will not have a declining population. People who are commenting in the comments section about cost of living of income inequality or work pressure are pure bee essing. Poor people who struggle to survive, have less means and less time, less facilities, typically have more children. On the contrary, the women interviewed are speaking honestly. It is just that people in developed countries have lowered the importance of marriage and children. Family, society, employer's, colleagues judgement on the choice, unacceptable always, is finally getting swept away. There is no problem if the population decreases in a slow managed way, except for real estate investors or other "growth-seeking" investors. Why is the interviewer asking the absurd question why not four or five? Is it Afghanistan or West Africa?
Please la getting married in Singapore is like a double edge sword lol. Many many people are getting divorce in Singapore because of 1 main reason MONEY. Just let that sink in about the price to pay BTO how long to wait? Education fees expensive, working 6 days a week where got time and more and more.
When you look at it from a macro view, adults who choose to have kids now are bringing the kids into a punishing environment because these kids will grow up to support a super large group of aging population. It’s actually unfair to the new parents too that they have to bear the high cost of raising the kid and their kids next time have to support other old people m
My wife wants a 2nd baby despite she being a working mum while I'm always telling her to stop at 1 becos she is already so much occupied with work and family. (And then she suggested to hire a nanny :p)
I would suggest the govt relook at GST. To give you an example Sweden has 25% VAT but their birth rates are much higher. Thats because all baby essentials enjoy zero VAT. Perhaps Sg should do so too. Anyway the GST is for government tax input, there is no sense in collecting and then formulating plans to dish out freebies, how much more admin work is involved. Or you can implement stacked discount schemes one child 10%, second child 12%, third child 15%
There definitely is a huge issue in many countries in regards to this population issue and low birth rate. However, globally there's an excess number of people so expecting to have the birthrate issue fixed soon is not realistic. Money is an issue because the economy in many countries is problematic and it doesn't help that the governments around the world don't do much (if anything) to encourage people to have more children; be it through increasing wages/salaries, giving women and men more benefits if they have children or expecting a new child, etc. The older generation might have an idea of why current adults are not having as many children, but there's also the social aspects. One social aspect is the preference of having a 'fur kid' instead. Some people actually choose to have a pet and then they have an actual kid; provided they even go into a relationship and marry. Marriage ceremonies can be expensive too and buying a home is very expensive too. Age is also a thing... More people get married in their 30s or 40s. But some intend to get married by around then but 'life happens' and maybe some people end up being older so trying to have a kid at those later age is not physically viable for most and even if you have a kid later than that, you have to think about how you'd be a senior citizen by the time the kid is in high school/university age. That in itself has issues too.
I so wanted someone turn the question asking back onto the interviewer. I would've liked to have someone ask her about her almost pushing an agenda type of thing. She kept repeating "marriage and children". Why the automatic connecting of the two? Am I making a mistake in thinking that marriage and kids aren't necessarily connected?
I think ideologies are changing and fewer people subscribe to the mentality of having children to support them in old age. In the past, people had many children for that reason. Also, personally, I feel that having too many children is selfish. Just one child already requires so much time and attention. If you have so many children, you'd end up neglecting some because we're human after all - We have a limited amount of time and attention that we can give our children before we ourselves burn out.
It's not a problem at all. Technology is catching up. We won't need so many workers in future. The world population is going up. We can just invite the world's best to join us in this island. They might not be like us but their children will be. Their grandchildren will be even more like us. Afterall, Singaporeans were all immigrants looking for a better life. Do not have a child because society expects it from you. Have children only if you love children and and can afford to give them a good life and be a good teacher to them.
Well, the older population that didn't want kids, have created the issue, so why should they take advantage of the new people the others gave birth and raised and put effort into it?
10:03 what is this woman on about? Is she planning to look after her kid well into their 50s? But somehow doesn't realize that pets are the ones who literally need looking after for their whole life? Pension should have never existed, it's really just now people children basically giving money to people who aren't their parents
Would say its more of a ethno-cultural phenomena. In multi-ethnic societies of Canada, Chinese and Koreans have one of the lowest, if not the lowest birth rates amongst other ethnicities. The statscan report states: "One person belonging to a visible minority groups in four (25%) was South Asian in 2006; that proportion could rise to approximately 28% in 2031. The proportion of Chinese persons would evolve differently, declining from 24% to approximately 21% between 2006 and 2031, even though the contribution of immigration would be similar to that of South Asians. The reason for this is that unlike South Asian women, Chinese women have one of the lowest fertility rates in Canada." This is likely to apply to Singapore and other countries.
Do Canadians just make everything about themselves or is it just you? The fertility rates of Singapore's three main ethnic groups look like this: Chinese - 0.94, Indian - 0.97 and Malay - 1.83. The contribution of Chinese immigration to Canada will not be the same as South Asian immigration to Canada because everybody knows that most immigrants to Canada are from India. There are way more Indians entering Canada than Chinese. The population of South Asians is rising in Canada because you keep accepting immigrants from India (especially Punjab). Singapore is made up of Singaporeans who have been living in Singapore for more than a hundreds years. Don't bring your race issues here please.
The fertility rates of Singapore's three main ethnic groups look like this: Chinese - 0.94, Indian - 0.97 and Malay - 1.83. The Chinese and Indians have the lowest in Singapore and the Chinese and Indians have been living in Singapore for many generations before the modern nations of China and India were even formed. Chinese, Indians and Malays they all share Singaporean culture. Thus, they are far removed from the cultural psyche of China and India respectively and cannot be compared to places like Canada. It would be like comparing French-Quebec Canadians with French in France. The report you quoted is from 2010 and there are several factors as to why that is now outdated, one of which is that the fertility rate for South Asian women would've declined for natural reasons, it would've been low to begin with considering the people in question would've been of a higher status and thus having probably 2 kids while Chinese immigrants came from a One-Child Policy era China and were used to being an only sibling and thus would've only had 1 kid. Additionally, when we look at the fertility rates in India which now stands at 2 and everywhere else in South Asia, except for Pakistan, it's below replacement level so the idea that the fertility rate of South Asian women in Canada, even with new immigrants, wouldn't have decreased doesn't make sense. It would've decreased and regardless, the difference would've likely been 1 between the two groups anyway. We're talking about higher quality immigrants and then their first generation offspring, who are adapted to the local culture.
Look how the Ang Moh comes here and starts comparing the Chinese, Koreans and South Asians even though we are talking about Singaporeans. He is trying to sow division between the Asians, even in the same country! Chinese, Malay, Indian in Singapore are all Singaporeans. This is why we must listen to China. The Ang Moh wants to create division in Asia.
@@user-jt3dw6vv4x Not a lie. I am quoting an actual national study that clearly states it did not factor different immigration rates and only spoke on birth rates of different ethnic groups. You also illustrated with your own statistics that different ethnic groups living in the same society/country have different birth rates. This has not been taken into consideration in discussion because apparently some are offended by its mention and some are only arguing that economic reasons are causing low fertility rates in a country which does not explain the different demographic rates.
@@downtomars6268 Well in Singapore, you can clearly see that the Chinese and Indians have the lowest rates, the Malays have below replacement level fertility too but it's higher simply because they are Muslims. The case of Singapore however cannot be compared to Canada where people are composed of recent immigrants and ethnic groups with different cultures. Singaporeans may be ethnically diverse but they all share the same Singaporean values that Lee Kuan Yew called "Asian values". The fertility rates among Singapore's three main groups are all below replacement level and they are all from the same Singaporean cultural background and so this talk of ethnic differences or culture makes no sense here.
1. The P/T teacher needs a reality check. 2. If you're finding it challenging putting food on the table, better put on a piece of rubber. 3. It's pretty shocking to see so many people who are clueless about what's happening around them.
Kids these days are soft, thats a fact. Ive had a grown man tear when i corrected his work lol. Its an uncomfortable reality but also not entirely inappropriate. With better life, everyone would become softer. And everyone has their own take on what they want in life. It doesnt change the fact that its increasingly diffcult and expensive to raise a family. Also gone are the days where hardwork ensures a good living. It is more complex these days.
It’s very much the same here in Japan. Some people don’t even work long hours and life here is very affordable but they refuse to sacrifice to have kids. It’s pathetic.
You talk like men don't have high standards. Social media has ruined perception of relationships and you won't accept anything less cause nowadays you can live happily alone
With the high cost of living, income inequality, relentless stress, and often toxic work culture, it’s no wonder that many Singaporeans feel hesitant about raising children. Government policies often come with restrictive regulations and strict eligibility criteria that fail to address the real struggles people face daily. Given all these issues, Singaporeans are making the right choice by focusing on their happiness rather than sacrificing their quality of life to follow the government’s call to have more children. Taking care of oneself in such challenging circumstances is not just sensible; it’s essential.
Nordic countries show us that even with excellent working and living conditions, there's no stopping to the declining birth rate in developed nations. This is just unavoidable and the only solution is immigration so far to prevent societal collapse. Thankfully Singapore is located in SEA which still has sustainable birth rate.
There is also the fact that our housing spaces are getting smaller and yet more expensive.
Too many individuals that want to remain single and enjoy their lives, not willing to invest in a future generation.
@@hitthedeck4115 As a country becomes more educated the fertility rate will decline. This isn't just a developed nation issue anymore when we look at how developing Asia is facing a fertility crisis too. Thailand has the second lowest fertility rate in SEA and it is a developing nation. Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in Asia, has a fertility rate of 1.95 which is below replacement level. The only reason they brought their fertility rate down is due to educating their people which allowed the government to teach their people about family planning, including contraception. So fertility decline isn't something can be avoided, it's going to happen. The goal should be to maintain a low fertility rate instead of letting it drop which is what's happening everywhere. If a nation can maintain a fertility rate of 1.9, still below replacement level, that would be good as opposed to letting it drop to below 1 which is what's happening in Singapore and South Korea.
😂😂😂 loser mentality! Your parents era also not easy!
housing and education are very expensive, in terms of monetary, time, and effort. having child is a heavy responsibility. progressive country like SG are emphasizing on individual success to bring honor to family. but it's rare for them to talk how the family itself will support individual that want to start a family with newborn child. People and the government need to start realizing that nurturing future generation is not individual responsibility, it's partly collective responsibility to provide a great environment to nurture the future generations.
Given the number of "million dollar" HDB news every now and then, how many "average" Singaporean family still dare to give birth? How many "average" Singaporean actually care about the declining birth rate when we struggle to even put food on our table?
We on the ground know the issues but the geniuses in government use this to justify their immigration policies and think the only issue is HDB. If they are able to tackle the fundamental issues of happiness, livelihood, inflation, then we will have kids.
Don't get me wrong, it is not easy, but the 1st step is to want to genuinely address the problem, recognize it, recognize the failures, be open to suggestions and work towards Singaporeans' happiness. This is a country of people, not a company. And if it was a company, the government would have been fired many times over.
This population problem has been known for decades. Did we not read about it in our population demographics geography lessons?
How is a million dollar HDB bad thing? People BTO and sell for a lot. If your income ceiling is too high to BTO then you’re not an average family anymore
As an old man, born in 1946, I have experienced real poverty, (just after the World War) that not the present young generation experienced and appreciate. As to whether you want to have any children, think FOUR, FIVE or SIX times. Having a child is easy, raising a child is another issue. Do you want your child to grow up to my age, to clean the toilet like me to make a living? THINK carefully your money. Can you afford ? Talk is easy, do is difficult
Well said old man.
Old man with the wise words
The lady/person in red polo shirt is so intelligent. Everything she says makes so much sense. Realistic and empathetic at the same time. What a brilliant person!
Very thoughtful answers. Ironic, but common, how the "teacher" is the most out of touch.
She is worried about olds and not worried about the country without younger generation😂
Thats why she is a 'part time teacher'. Real teachers 1) Would not have the time to even walk around getting interviewed. 2) Would not be dumb enough to say yes to an interview since its against certain guidelines.
There is a reason that there is a low birth rate. I have a Singaporean HR person (female, no kids) and am currently pregnant. She told me "I can't understand why your pregnancy is so difficult." Reluctant to make me take leaves while suffering severe morning sickness. She also told me women in Singapore are "tough" since they could continue working even while experiencing bad symptoms. I can just imagine how understanding they are about women with children. Maybe a little compassion and sympathy for pregnant women would help?
found the malay 🤭🤭
Your hr person is such a bitter person.
I feel like the reasoning on why we need kids is to support the againg population. To me it feels like a generational burden at this point. Maybe we all suffer a bit and let the suffering end in our generation instead of passing it to our unborn children thus continuing the curse
I don't even have the job security to pay for housing, what makes you think I can afford kids? Government really naive to think these policies are enough
I moved out of Singapore this year after 4 years. It’s not a place to start a family, the amount of greed everywhere is too high. Jobs are average as well (compared to Europe) and startups are well, not that innovative.
Coming from a Singaporean here, thank you for speaking the truth!
@@wildpasta singapore is still good to store your wealth. And work overseas
I heard inflation is going down though which is good which means by 2025 everything will be back to normal
It’s a crisis for the gov and the rich bcus they need people to
1. Work for them
2. Serve them
3. Take care of them
so yeah. If you’re poor, you know where you belong. Having kids to continue to this cycle? Don’t worry there’s still plenty. Any kind of suffering ends with me, the end
As much as I want to raise a kid .. financially is hard and I don't want another human being to suffer
You are very wise
Only people from developed countries think like this
@@moemoe12647 yes, because people in developing country mostly dont care if their offspring suffer
I think for young people it looks like a daunting task to get married and start a family. I myself was overwhelmed by the expectations especially when I'm the eldest child in my family. My plans were to take one step at a time and it didnt go beyond having children tbh. My two children are now in sec school and it is not easy raising and supporting them. Every stage of their lives are a challenge for us. There's no parenting handbook and we have to read up books and material from the internet. Plus it's not something we can give up half way. Life isnt always a bed of roses for sure, there are ups and downs. We have to think twice when it comes down to finances. Other than that there are the pressure from expectations. People expect parents to be role models and what not. I mean we are human beings too. For me I think the commitment must be there but when it comes to our country's population we have to first put food on our table before we could think of such issue. End of the day it really depends on how our country will want to commit themselves into helping its citizens start a family and have children. It cannot be a one time handout for sure. It must be a long term commitment like what we give to our children. The talk about the issue has always been there and giving out citizenship seems like quick fix. So the question is what if the people stop coming? What's next? (PS: our new pm doesnt even have a child, how to talk to citizens about having more babies? The family policy maker who is a single lady isnt even married. How would she know about the struggles of married couples? Pls lead by example for Sgp sake. Don't just tell people what to do.)
7:46 WHAT IS HAPPENINGGG 💀💀💀
Promoting the glook glook 3000
She's casting magic.
Aunty is tweaking 😂
Broadly, Parents want to give their children a better life than what they had experienced - generally, the goal for most parents. But we've come to a (tipping) point where our children's future is looking to be more bleak than what we have now. Houses are getting smaller, competition is still ever increasing.
7:47 the lady on the green made me choke on my drink, that was completely out of pocket 😭
*Singaporean lady ;)
She completely got down on it and went ham lmao
@@OvenBakedCookie my bad gang, I'll just take it out of the sentence
@@Nick-pc9tf Fr tho 😂😭
she was trying to show us how she hawk tuahed
Singapore do not need high birth rate, the country already attract many foreigners talent to work there.
I mean majority race isn't all that local either, well just keep importing people from other countries
Exactly, in fact i would say we are currently overpopulated at 6 million…
If 1 income can't support a family of 4, it's over.
Why is it over? In many countries in the world, (when you're earning the local wage) it's not possible to support a family of 4 on 1 person's wage. Some people even have to work 2 jobs.
Why would u want to have children if you can’t make sure to give them the best
Because without having kids there is no world.
@@darinherrick9224 Then let there be no world, we humans are the poison to this very earth.
@ this is a competitive world, if u can’t give them the best they will only be miserable in the future. Giving birth just for the sake of the population is just stupid imo
@@darinherrick9224 What's wrong with there being no world? After you die, would you have any problem if there is no world?
We're all slaves here, anyway.
Our forefathers and mothers decided to have children because they believe they can give us the best they can AFFORD. Not having the best doesn't mean that life will be miserable. I happen to think it makes one more driven, resilient and innovative, having come from a less than ideal background.
Despite our declining birth rate and aging population, our population actually recently hit a high of 6 million so I’m gonna go on a hot take and say that we actually need to reduce our population so I would actually encourage more people whether it’s local citizens or expats to leave Singapore otherwise we will be overpopulated. I would encourage Singaporeans to look to life outside of Singapore, yes I know it’s not easy and many Singaporeans like to stay in their comfort zone but because we’ve all only got one life, we should get out there to explore and expand our horizons instead of being trapped in this Singapore bubble.
The high population is because too many governments are importing too many foreigners
PAP going for 10m population leh, born and bred here Singaporeans already a minority, now SG became foreigner land, with them draining the country's resources till there is nothing left then off to the next opportunity elsewhere. Only money talks here, and increasing PAP's coffers.
That's not how you do it since you'll be left with a higher percentage of old people. A more aging population means that the productive part of society needs to work harder, which you want to avoid in the first place.
@ well it won’t matter cause I will be one of the people who wants to leave Singapore anyway
@@fion3943 that’s why I tell all my foreign friends Singapore isn’t a country, it’s a corporation. The Singapore identity, the kampong spirit is as good as going to be extinct. But anyway since I’ve travelled abroad a couple of times, my perspectives have opened up and I just can’t see myself living and working in Singapore in the long term (I will only come back to visit friends and family but other than that, I’ve got no other reasons for wanting to return).
My lates 30-40s colleagues in my workplace are those who make more than enough money to support more children, but are simply too busy to spend time with them. Like my boss lady, Im guessing hers and her husband salary is like minimum 5digits each per month, but must balance super hard to be there for their child, time and emotion wise.
On the other side, there are those that have time, but just not enough income to even think of that.
There are way too many things at play lol, I'm dating my 2 yrs bf now and still feel like enjoying our dating life for a few more years. Can't even imagine changing to another phase. You get more time to build your own life, figuring out yourself, more money to enjoy and focus on yourself, adulting is like a "me time" now and no a lot of ppl willing to let that go.
The bottom line is this thing called “Quality of Life”. The system must allow people to have kids without much negative impact to their quality of lives.
This is a global problem. Society is no longer set up for families. Both people need to work full time just to afford basic life necessities. Who has time and leftover funds for children?
You have a single second finance minister, you have a Prime Minister/Finance Minister who does not have children. You think they know how to apportion money and tax subsidy for families? They will just follow a bunch of academic papers, and not really experiencing the truth of the research and resolving the problem. And if you have policymakers who are not able to empathise with childrearing, how to design and create policies that engender a sustainable population?
Correction: One of the Second Finance Minister has 4 children.
We will come to regret in 20 years, when the whole world has an ageing population, we will run out of people to import.
As for those people who think they want a career, good for you. While you and your husband slog away at your job, the maid in your condo (that you're slogging for) is the Mistress of the House, enjoying the fruits of your labour and time with your children.
Well said. I salute you for saying it out
Exactly, the maid in the house is enjoying life but somehow Asian boss ran a previous video insinuating that they are slaves. They can’t be more wrong.
Any regular person who has basic understanding of math can sit down to list and break down the cost of living from getting a decent education, getting a home and maintaining a job and just basic necessities. The amount you will come up to is staggering. My income is sgd3500 after cpf and I single also have very little left over after the usual giving parents money, food and savings. The people earn less than me I feel even worse.
You are lucky already. My income is ZERO (0) dollar. I only wish to have an income of $ 350 not 3,500
Happening all over the developed world.
why would a loving parent bring a child into this harsh world today?
Me as Asian (Filipino-Chinese), we want to establish like, everything we had to stable without worrying, so our belief was we wanted to experience life between poor or rich life difference, and we feel like we want to experience like having a privileged life, despite of everything was expensive in different countries, and yes, it hard to maintain honestly, especially if you're not stable financially, and start have own family, for us it's very burden and challenging sometimes, despite of highest cost
0:55 "career-driven" or "family-driven" I hope the soceity can go towards a direction that allow people to handle both with relatively ease
In capitalism, every year needs to grow (infinite); once growth stops, the game is over. Most people would favor self-development over family growth. When people think of develop a family usually near retirement, given nowadays Mass Layoff is a things, naturally people will feel insecure no matter how well they did. But nowadays many country start to realize they need better worker protection in order to balance growth and family growth, but often avoid the real cause and proceed to immigration, If the root cause yet to solve everything will be the same.
Nordic countries show that you can't cure, or reverse, a declining birth rate with better working and living condition. Only immigration is the solution so far.
previous generation anyhow give birth to a football team without caring about finances, next gen suffers poverty , lesson learnt . Do not settle for less or not suffer same fate as parents.We learnt it the hard way. and also you need to reach a certain level in career to be financially adequate to start a family... love also not easy to find, dating takes time what if u invest on the wrong person... takes more time , reach 30s prime is over , just be single at that point.
Offer us a better, safe, pleasant world and people will naturally have more kids.
People are not having children because of high opportunity cost esp for women. There needs to be a shift in mindset and culture to respect and support mothers by giving longer paid maternity leaves without risk of losing her career. For e.g. in canada, we have paid maternity leave for 12mo - 18mo. Mothers are also protected by employment law to ensure they will not be discriminated or dismissed by her company.
I feel sad for the children in singapore as they often are away from their parents for long hours every day since a young age, being cared for by instituitionalized care (daycare, after school care) which will never measure up to caregiving by their own parents. This will create attachment issue making our kids less resilient. There are things that shouldnt be outsourced.
Unfortunately, the government will never encourage longer paid maternity leave or for one parent to be a stay at home parent since this would undermine the competitiveness of the country with half the workforce of reproductive age staying home to focus on child rearing or on maternity leave.
Well said, I got terminated for no reason after returning from my 2nd 2-month maternity break even though I had made it a point to return to work two months after giving birth to help the company and only went on the 2nd break when my baby was 7 months old. All the government-linked agencies like MOM, TAFEP and TADM could only say that there was nothing wrong with my company as they had paid 1 month salary in lieu of notice which they have the right to do so as per my employment contract and that's even with appeal from an MP and our dear ex-PM L who said they will write to MOM to get them to investigate on the matter. At the end of the day, all I received from TADM was, if I would like recourse, "please file with the Small Claims Tribunal".
Who would have the time to pursue this matter with the SCT when one's most pressing needs is to secure another source of income to pay for your baby's milk powder, diapers, infant care fees etc.
Even with the new unemployment support that they plan to roll out next year, $6k support over a course of 6 months is simply a joke. At $1k per month while still having to attend courses and what not, it's not even enough for 1 person much less a family.
Last time a HDB room can fit two kids. Now a room fit one kid. Go figure.
Personally I feel today’s world so chaotic why add yr own kids to this messed up world . V sad for them
Average Singaporean here. Just had my first child. Honestly I would love a second but high cost and also my wife's age are the 2 main factors stopping me from having a second.
Just try for second one. I have 4 kids when I still renting flat from HDB. Now I have a bigger house. Kids will push your limits. If I have no kids I think I still stay in HDB.😂
If you listen carefully in their comments, they actually don't mind having kids but they just couldn't.
I think the thing with birth rate is showing symptoms and not root cause. Generally speaking, fertility is decreasing, it has direct relations to stress. Many people want kids but are not able to have kids.
If you look at the data, you'd notice that the poorer the country, the higher the birthrate. I have no idea why, but I highly doubt that it is purely a matter of wanting or not wanting.
It's not like you have sex and you immediately have a baby.
No one dare to admit its mainly about cultural shift. Peoples more and more individualistic. High living cost are only excuse. I dont want to trade my carreer and hobbies for children.
correct.
Everywhere is the same lol
That's true, but having the money can also make it easier if you want to have both.
We are more concerned about inflation 😅 can barely handle being solo don't mention getting married and having children
Having a family is NOT a cultural issue
It's literally what drives our species to continue and preventing from extinction
It's hard to have a vested interest in Singapore when its own government is selling the country out(CECA, NOL, NTUC, Temasek etc).
After experiencing the Singapore grind, some feel it is not fair to raise a child only to have them suffer a similar outcome.
Child rearing are now just numbers for the capitalist workforce, even the interviewers inadvertently link children with economy.
Made more evident by the immigration policies rather than to create a more holistic environment.
i feel sg nowadays talk too much which affects the value of your words. Less words, more impact.
The teacher being so out of touch with the demographic reality truly speaks to the declining quality of our education system and our cynical mistrust of academia.
If push comes to shove, the only pragmatic solution for the lack of human capital in the impending decades is for Singapore to open its doors to foreigners to fill the unoccupied positions. But they can't do so in a reckless manner or they'll risk destroying the country's social fabric, like with what we're witnessing in Europe.
Most people aren't thinking about how their existing actions will affect future generations because most people's priorities are about survival and caring for their own livelihood. But with a problem like declining birth rates, you won't feel the effects of it until it's too late. This is why mitigation is so important.
The paradox of declining birth rates and economic prosperity is observable in virtually every first-world country. As a population becomes more educated and the standard of living increases, we see less couples choosing to have kids. People start to prioritize their careers over childbearing as life expectancies grow, and this encourages couples to delay starting a family even further.
The grandma is right about entertainment's influence on how young people choose to operate. During her generation, there weren't nearly as many distractions to occupy time. We now have an infinite number of other things that we can do instead of following the linear path. It's both a blessing and a curse.
Marriage has fallen out of favor largely because of the modern dating market. Before we had the Internet, people were forced to date within their immediate communities because that was the full extent of their dating pool. Now, people think they have infinite options thanks to dating apps, so there's much less of an incentive to lock down with one person when there's a possibility that someone better could come along.
I vehemently disagree with the notion that we "don't need relationships" and are able to grow independently. Man is a social animal. We crave human connection, both platonically and romantically. We aren't built to live reclusive lives. This is partially why so many people in our generation are reporting depression/anxiety symptoms.
People shouldn't be coerced into having children, but the notion that society should pivot from viewing childbearing as a duty is callous and dangerous. If our collective goal is to preserve humanity, we should aspire to having kids instead of prioritizing our own individual desires first. Otherwise, we will reap what we sow.
For women, it would be ideal to have kids before 30 because of potential fertility issues, but men have a lot more leeway in this regard. Marriage is also becoming increasingly delayed, as reflected in the stats.
Yeah Mate. I complete agree with all you stated. I can tell you that people are really out of touch with the real situation. Growing up I used to see and hear of many women having babies when in my country we had 2.5-2.0 birth rate. now it has gone to 1.48 And we can point out many situations unthinkable 30 years ago like a hospital in a big city of 450 thousand missing a whole week without any birth (city is also has oldest population in Brazil).
Having children are expensive, take a lot of effort and time. Not to mention for the sandwiched class, we have to provide for our elderly parents who have no savings and our children as well as save up for our own retirement.
Add job insecurity due to rampant retrenchment and foreign "talents" influx crowding out jobs, it can be a bleak working condition in the future.
Think the prople interviewed here are quite wise and well-thought on the consequences. Besides big stress of living in Sg, and everything needs money here. It is not like we own large farmland, need many ppl. even our flats are so tiny. I think even single salary, with some parents to feed, is tough already, not to mention additional mouths and if later need to buy house and car some more. Jobs are hard to find, and uncertain also. People who prefer fur kids, at least they can help relax the mind, seeing and having to deal with too many people just makes one crazy.
It is also about economic. Back then was a farming society, baby are deem as asset. Becos they provide manpower. Nowadays, baby are deem as burden. There is no asset value. Yes singapore literacy level is high. That is y everyone know what to do.
Some context such as a plot of the cost of living / housing cost change over the years plus the birth rate stats might be helpful to see the correlation. There are several interviewers think not being able to support the younger generation is the source of the birth rate decline.
Lols did the indian auntie just started dancing while her friend talk
Out of curiosity, I did some quick Googling of SG birth rates in the last 10 years. While it's true that there's been a steady decline since 2014, especially in 2020 and 2021 (due to pandemic, I presume), there was a healthy bounce back in 2022 and 2023 before it dips low again in 2024.
If I have to guess, to echo the sentiments of the people in the video, the economy is the biggest culprit here. What's happening in SG (inflation, rising living costs, stagnant wages) is happening all over the world, but since SG is so small, the effects of those things are magnified tenfold, it seems. So much so, that it affects the birth rates.
I'm optimistic that once the economy gets better and people find their finances to be viable to start a family, they would do so. There are many negative sentiments being said about Singaporeans, but I do believe they still have a lot of heart, and having a family remains the goal for many of them. And I'm sure the SG government being the frighteningly efficient and extraordinarily rich entity that it is, they'd come up with various initiatives and programs that will support its civilians to reproduce.
So, yeah. Give it 2-3 years, I would say. I hope things will get better for SG!
In today's world, there isn't an urgent need to increase the population; we are not in a crisis that demands it. Historically, we've seen population booms after periods of intense hardship, like world wars. After these crises, the world experiences a sense of relief and renewed optimism, leading to a surge in births as people feel secure enough to invest in future generations. But in the current climate of relative peace and stability, we don’t see that same drive.
When we examine historical population trends, we notice significant growth following major conflicts. As peace returns, people feel a renewed sense of happiness and security, which inspires them to start or expand families. But today, in a world without the constant reminder of insecurity and instability, this instinct isn’t triggered as strongly.
In a sense, experiencing and then overcoming global fears can heighten the joy people feel in peaceful times. It’s a contrast effect-after facing the hardships of war, people tend to appreciate and invest in peace more deeply. While we may not actually wish for crises to spur growth, it’s an interesting reflection on human nature and how we respond to challenges.
I hope they address the weather issue in Parliament 😂
They still monitoring
Even if sg birth rate falls below 0.1, its population will grow anyway
Malay growth
Population will grow but birth still low.. population increase due to foreigner's working here
sg government's terrible handling of the problems.
World is too crowded. Need to reduce population drastically so everyone gets a larger share of natural resources.
You can't reduce population through birth rate since that will leave you with a more aging society, which is bad news.
@hitthedeck4115 how many child you have?
@@haplogroup-J One 2yo. Why?
@abhaykothari3000 The world is not overpopulated.
It’s crazy that people would just say that and not adress the issues of wealth inequality, consumerism, waste, lack of recycling, planned obsolescence and so much more !
@@Geyme971 Wealth is an issue of people with kids. No kids and no need to think beyond a few decades.
This issue is not only in Singapore but also in many countries nowadays regardless of whether or not it's a developed country.
Singapore's population issue is not a numerical one, but a structural one. If you can't increase the bottom, you can also remove the top.
Many don't think this through, but longevity is also one contributing factor. Imagine a working population having to support the retired generation across 50 years against one that is across 20 years.
“To Never Have been born may be the greatest boon of all” ― Sophocles
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part-time teacher guess doesn't even come close. this is concerning
Singapore is a tiny city-state without any single ethnicity and is cosmopolitan.
It is a rich nation and a magnate for immigrants, therefore it will not have a declining population.
People who are commenting in the comments section about cost of living of income inequality or work pressure are pure bee essing.
Poor people who struggle to survive, have less means and less time, less facilities, typically have more children.
On the contrary, the women interviewed are speaking honestly.
It is just that people in developed countries have lowered the importance of marriage and children.
Family, society, employer's, colleagues judgement on the choice, unacceptable always, is finally getting swept away.
There is no problem if the population decreases in a slow managed way, except for real estate investors or other "growth-seeking" investors.
Why is the interviewer asking the absurd question why not four or five? Is it Afghanistan or West Africa?
singapore brought this upon itself, high cost of living which has no end
7:46 why did she do that hand thing
Please la getting married in Singapore is like a double edge sword lol. Many many people are getting divorce in Singapore because of 1 main reason MONEY. Just let that sink in about the price to pay BTO how long to wait? Education fees expensive, working 6 days a week where got time and more and more.
Aiya. Older people don't need the younger generation to support.. in fact the older generation probably own enough assets to support the younger gen.
... it's not a crisis.
When you look at it from a macro view, adults who choose to have kids now are bringing the kids into a punishing environment because these kids will grow up to support a super large group of aging population.
It’s actually unfair to the new parents too that they have to bear the high cost of raising the kid and their kids next time have to support other old people m
Why low birth rate will make you sad 😂😂 Singapore is a country based on immigration there's no one really Singaporean
Most young people of this generation find their living standard has reduced compared with their parents. So, their children can only get worse
My wife wants a 2nd baby despite she being a working mum while I'm always telling her to stop at 1 becos she is already so much occupied with work and family. (And then she suggested to hire a nanny :p)
I would suggest the govt relook at GST. To give you an example Sweden has 25% VAT but their birth rates are much higher. Thats because all baby essentials enjoy zero VAT. Perhaps Sg should do so too. Anyway the GST is for government tax input, there is no sense in collecting and then formulating plans to dish out freebies, how much more admin work is involved. Or you can implement stacked discount schemes one child 10%, second child 12%, third child 15%
There definitely is a huge issue in many countries in regards to this population issue and low birth rate. However, globally there's an excess number of people so expecting to have the birthrate issue fixed soon is not realistic.
Money is an issue because the economy in many countries is problematic and it doesn't help that the governments around the world don't do much (if anything) to encourage people to have more children; be it through increasing wages/salaries, giving women and men more benefits if they have children or expecting a new child, etc.
The older generation might have an idea of why current adults are not having as many children, but there's also the social aspects. One social aspect is the preference of having a 'fur kid' instead. Some people actually choose to have a pet and then they have an actual kid; provided they even go into a relationship and marry.
Marriage ceremonies can be expensive too and buying a home is very expensive too.
Age is also a thing... More people get married in their 30s or 40s. But some intend to get married by around then but 'life happens' and maybe some people end up being older so trying to have a kid at those later age is not physically viable for most and even if you have a kid later than that, you have to think about how you'd be a senior citizen by the time the kid is in high school/university age. That in itself has issues too.
The second Indian girl is well spoken but says like too much
singaporeans use the word 'like' too much, which makes them sound less confident
influence of American culture. filler words overused.
Yes they are beginning to sound "like" Americans with kind off, super etc. I miss the la.
There is nothing for Singapore Government to worry about because they can continue to import quality people from Malaysia.
I so wanted someone turn the question asking back onto the interviewer. I would've liked to have someone ask her about her almost pushing an agenda type of thing. She kept repeating "marriage and children". Why the automatic connecting of the two? Am I making a mistake in thinking that marriage and kids aren't necessarily connected?
Like it or not, Singapore will be a Muslim majority country in 2 decades to come.
Sad to hear, so will the UK. Darwinism.
I think ideologies are changing and fewer people subscribe to the mentality of having children to support them in old age. In the past, people had many children for that reason. Also, personally, I feel that having too many children is selfish. Just one child already requires so much time and attention. If you have so many children, you'd end up neglecting some because we're human after all - We have a limited amount of time and attention that we can give our children before we ourselves burn out.
It's not a problem at all. Technology is catching up. We won't need so many workers in future. The world population is going up.
We can just invite the world's best to join us in this island. They might not be like us but their children will be. Their grandchildren will be even more like us. Afterall, Singaporeans were all immigrants looking for a better life.
Do not have a child because society expects it from you. Have children only if you love children and and can afford to give them a good life and be a good teacher to them.
Not only young people preferred pets than kids mr wong also prefered his golden retreiver than kids.
Successful policy 👍
As Shinzo abe said holding a gun- " have sex "
Well, the older population that didn't want kids, have created the issue, so why should they take advantage of the new people the others gave birth and raised and put effort into it?
10:03 what is this woman on about? Is she planning to look after her kid well into their 50s?
But somehow doesn't realize that pets are the ones who literally need looking after for their whole life?
Pension should have never existed, it's really just now people children basically giving money to people who aren't their parents
Would say its more of a ethno-cultural phenomena. In multi-ethnic societies of Canada, Chinese and Koreans have one of the lowest, if not the lowest birth rates amongst other ethnicities. The statscan report states: "One person belonging to a visible minority groups in four (25%) was South Asian in 2006; that proportion could rise to approximately 28% in 2031. The proportion of Chinese persons would evolve differently, declining from 24% to approximately 21% between 2006 and 2031, even though the contribution of immigration would be similar to that of South Asians. The reason for this is that unlike South Asian women, Chinese women have one of the lowest fertility rates in Canada." This is likely to apply to Singapore and other countries.
Do Canadians just make everything about themselves or is it just you? The fertility rates of Singapore's three main ethnic groups look like this: Chinese - 0.94, Indian - 0.97 and Malay - 1.83. The contribution of Chinese immigration to Canada will not be the same as South Asian immigration to Canada because everybody knows that most immigrants to Canada are from India. There are way more Indians entering Canada than Chinese. The population of South Asians is rising in Canada because you keep accepting immigrants from India (especially Punjab). Singapore is made up of Singaporeans who have been living in Singapore for more than a hundreds years. Don't bring your race issues here please.
The fertility rates of Singapore's three main ethnic groups look like this: Chinese - 0.94, Indian - 0.97 and Malay - 1.83. The Chinese and Indians have the lowest in Singapore and the Chinese and Indians have been living in Singapore for many generations before the modern nations of China and India were even formed. Chinese, Indians and Malays they all share Singaporean culture. Thus, they are far removed from the cultural psyche of China and India respectively and cannot be compared to places like Canada. It would be like comparing French-Quebec Canadians with French in France. The report you quoted is from 2010 and there are several factors as to why that is now outdated, one of which is that the fertility rate for South Asian women would've declined for natural reasons, it would've been low to begin with considering the people in question would've been of a higher status and thus having probably 2 kids while Chinese immigrants came from a One-Child Policy era China and were used to being an only sibling and thus would've only had 1 kid. Additionally, when we look at the fertility rates in India which now stands at 2 and everywhere else in South Asia, except for Pakistan, it's below replacement level so the idea that the fertility rate of South Asian women in Canada, even with new immigrants, wouldn't have decreased doesn't make sense. It would've decreased and regardless, the difference would've likely been 1 between the two groups anyway. We're talking about higher quality immigrants and then their first generation offspring, who are adapted to the local culture.
Look how the Ang Moh comes here and starts comparing the Chinese, Koreans and South Asians even though we are talking about Singaporeans. He is trying to sow division between the Asians, even in the same country! Chinese, Malay, Indian in Singapore are all Singaporeans. This is why we must listen to China. The Ang Moh wants to create division in Asia.
@@user-jt3dw6vv4x Not a lie. I am quoting an actual national study that clearly states it did not factor different immigration rates and only spoke on birth rates of different ethnic groups. You also illustrated with your own statistics that different ethnic groups living in the same society/country have different birth rates. This has not been taken into consideration in discussion because apparently some are offended by its mention and some are only arguing that economic reasons are causing low fertility rates in a country which does not explain the different demographic rates.
@@downtomars6268 Well in Singapore, you can clearly see that the Chinese and Indians have the lowest rates, the Malays have below replacement level fertility too but it's higher simply because they are Muslims. The case of Singapore however cannot be compared to Canada where people are composed of recent immigrants and ethnic groups with different cultures. Singaporeans may be ethnically diverse but they all share the same Singaporean values that Lee Kuan Yew called "Asian values". The fertility rates among Singapore's three main groups are all below replacement level and they are all from the same Singaporean cultural background and so this talk of ethnic differences or culture makes no sense here.
0:36 4:04 17:45 20:39
is she eurasian?
Looks black to me
Yeah she's Eurasian. She looks it and also Eurasians are the fourth largest group after the Chinese, Malays and Indians
@@antinataliz9633 Get your eyes checked 💀
@@reedgomes9246 woosh
They cant afford a car, how can they afford children
Thanks to PAP.
Part-time teacher seen too much in the world liao, class sized sample = whole of singapore. Atb to singapore education system.
1. The P/T teacher needs a reality check.
2. If you're finding it challenging putting food on the table, better put on a piece of rubber.
3. It's pretty shocking to see so many people who are clueless about what's happening around them.
We ended up with a prime minister who is divorced and has no kids. So you can be sure this is not a concern.
Less people, more money for whoever is left.
Part-time teacher LMAO.
we need to save earth , we not need so many people, human are selfies we want more baby just for the economic to continue
Kids these days are soft, thats a fact. Ive had a grown man tear when i corrected his work lol. Its an uncomfortable reality but also not entirely inappropriate. With better life, everyone would become softer. And everyone has their own take on what they want in life.
It doesnt change the fact that its increasingly diffcult and expensive to raise a family.
Also gone are the days where hardwork ensures a good living. It is more complex these days.
What's wrong with a man crying?
Too many pajeets on the skreets.
Imaging how it could be in Malaysia.
Everyone talks but no one is willing to do anything about it...
a product of self centered society
Ok, boomer
It’s very much the same here in Japan. Some people don’t even work long hours and life here is very affordable but they refuse to sacrifice to have kids. It’s pathetic.
@@InstantLuc Nah
South Korea would be a better example
Wildly ironic how others are "self-centered" just because their personal life choices do not benefit your selfish preferences and agendas.
When 80% of them chase only the top percent of rich tall handsome and ignore good honest hard working men, then you know there is a problem.
Glad you didn't get jabbed and aren't paying for it with your health.
You talk like men don't have high standards. Social media has ruined perception of relationships and you won't accept anything less cause nowadays you can live happily alone
Your post and user name suggests you are an ignorant incel. Sorry things aren't working out for you.
@@Hourvary One side is pickier, you know that, and men just want young, pretty and not an annoying nagging one, that's it.
@@vitaluna1568young and pretty women arent going going to settle for mediocore men bffr