Why birth rate not enough in Singapore?

[Teyemittisi]

I will like to give a controversial opinion. Women who want kids will have kids regardless.

it is the men who do not want kids. The baby bonus is only extended to couples (male plus female) forming a nucleus family. Hence government only intervene when males are in the picture. Single mothers have many kids regardless - and they do not do so for baby bonus. They bring up the tfr cheaply without depending so much on taxpayers money.

hence I think it is not the females who do not want kids. Females who settle down with males also do not have a lot of kids. Hence if I assume the females get married with the intention of getting kids, I believe its the males who overrode the female’s decision to have many kids. Cos if female veto male ie they dont want any kids, and the male want, the males will just divorce and go for a younger fertile woman. Or create more babies outside the marriage ie refer to the above single mother scenario. Or find a foreign bride.

hence i believe it is the singaporean men do not want kids n want to see their lineage die off.

Above women please contact me.. moi would be more than happy to help you conceive.. decent healthy genes guaranteed min IQ and good looks.. just maybe not that tall

 

[glarerder]

I will like to give a controversial opinion. Women who want kids will have kids regardless.

it is the men who do not want kids. The baby bonus is only extended to couples (male plus female) forming a nucleus family. Hence government only intervene when males are in the picture. Single mothers have many kids regardless - and they do not do so for baby bonus. They bring up the tfr cheaply without depending so much on taxpayers money.

hence I think it is not the females who do not want kids. Females who settle down with males also do not have a lot of kids. Hence if I assume the females get married with the intention of getting kids, I believe its the males who overrode the female’s decision to have many kids. Cos if female veto male ie they dont want any kids, and the male want, the males will just divorce and go for a younger fertile woman. Or create more babies outside the marriage ie refer to the above single mother scenario. Or find a foreign bride.

hence i believe it is the singaporean men do not want kids n want to see their lineage die off.

Men can easily get married and have kids. Bride agency is for men. But because the income requirement getting higher and the top focus is on taking care of women and children in marriage, much less for men. Future trend would be more and more men walking away from being an ATM. If I have the same 5K or 10K why would I want to marry to risk needing to pay off a bad marriage to leave it? Why not I use the same amount of money to save up and retire earlier or enjoy life? It's my hard-earned money anyway. And women nowadays can also take care of themselves with good career and earnings. We are better off being singles than getting married.

 

[Teyemittisi]

I have 2 young kids. Average income. Usual costs are a lot already not to mention the effort and time it takes to raise children. How to have more? I only can depend on helper and heng we have an okay one. If she dont want to extend contract, our arrangement will crumble.

Not to mention for work, both of us are in private sector non-iron rice bowl jobs. My co is having a joint venture so idk if i will still have a job this or next year lol.

And then as sandwiched gen, also have mounting expenses for elderly parents. For middle income family, we r deemed not poor enough to have extra govt help, but we r also not rich enough to be not stressed with monet issues.

Boat always turn straight at the bridge.. moi don’t believe things will crumble like soft biscuits .. humans are resilient.. things are not as inflexible as they seem to be.. look at older generations in the 50-60s.. do you really think they plan ahead when they have 6-7 kids with no stable jobs? The most some kids die and some given away but the family line continueS

 

[trumperater]

My unpopular opinion is that punishment works better than incentives and is more feasible than just throwing money at people. Make housing and COE a lot more expensive for the DINKs unless they pop out at least one or more babies and then they can claim back the amount they paid more for, especially for high earning DINKs. If that doesn't work, we'd have to start looking at ways to go back to a patriarchal society and limiting female empowerment.

 

[Teyemittisi]

My unpopular opinion is that punishment works better than incentives and is more feasible than just throwing money at people. Make housing and COE a lot more expensive for the DINKs unless they pop out at least one or more babies and then they can claim back the amount they paid more for, especially for high earning DINKs. If that doesn't work, we'd have to start looking at ways to go back to a patriarchal society and limiting female empowerment.

Make sure the punishment is on women and not men since men already facing the problem of not being able to find spouse to bear children for them

 

[A Better Tomorrow]

Yang men and women are conditioned to place building own careers first before settling down. Inter-dependence is over-rated.

So, many marry late. And the biological clock does not wait. Coupled with high standard of living, easier to live as DINK.

 

[CanIsayNo]

1 thing is quality of marriage.. when the quality of marriage sucks, the couple also wont want to have kids.. maybe have 1 and then sick of each other

 

[neutralph]

Want to have fun but not the responsibility.

 

[EccentricBagels]

TFR is already lower than 1. If popping so many kids like a swine does can improve it but pushes one to have financial and emotional stress, it's best not to have them.

Since you want to blame someone, I'd say to blame those who keep voting for the same party that allowed these changes to go on.

Again, I said I'm not blaming the people nor the government. I said if people wanted to, they can choose to have kids. Since when kids won't cause financial and emotional stress?

I work with them daily and they're the source of my work stress, but such is the nature of being with individuals who are growing. I've known some kids since they're primary one and now they're grown. I'm proud of the person they've been, despite whether they've academically done well. Being able to experience that is a joy, and I can imagine that some parents chose to have kids to experience the same joy, despite the hardships. Some people are just not ready for that commitment and stress, and there's nothing the gov can do change their own minds.

What changes are you exactly refering to and what do you exactly expect the opposition to do? So far, most of their manifestos needs more money to implement. Things like smaller class sizes aren't free, so parents are willing to fork out more school fees? Or will taxpayers pay more for it?

 

[SayPorkGuy]

Yang men and women are conditioned to place building own careers first before settling down. Inter-dependence is over-rated.

So, many marry late. And the biological clock does not wait. Coupled with high standard of living, easier to live as DINK.

elites dontch want peasants to have more kids who will turn into criminals. it's the quality of chewren that is brought up as useful contributing members of society. that's why pushing for more ai and automation to replace peasants. too many peasants use up resources that elites want for their comfy lives.

 

[TrollAndOgres]

Boat always turn straight at the bridge.. moi don’t believe things will crumble like soft biscuits .. humans are resilient.. things are not as inflexible as they seem to be.. look at older generations in the 50-60s.. do you really think they plan ahead when they have 6-7 kids with no stable jobs? The most some kids die and some given away but the family line continueS

Wle so hard to go through childbirth why will i want to give a baby away? I rather have one less baby so i can plan resources better. And nowadays infant mortality has gone down a lot.

Those last time 50-60 still ok cos no crazy inflation. And besides, i dont want to pasd on my burden for future generation to be responsible for my retirement like how our parents are doing now. The sandwiched class syndrome hopefully ends with my gen, and next gen just need to fend for themselves n their kids.

 

[Peasantboy]

My unpopular opinion is that punishment works better than incentives and is more feasible than just throwing money at people. Make housing and COE a lot more expensive for the DINKs unless they pop out at least one or more babies and then they can claim back the amount they paid more for, especially for high earning DINKs. If that doesn't work, we'd have to start looking at ways to go back to a patriarchal society and limiting female empowerment.

Totally agree with this.

If TFR is an existential issue for Singapore; and DINKs are living hedonistic selfish lives, just tax them more.

 

[wulu1_69]

Garmen so stingy don't want to fully pay the essential cost of raising kids

 

[Milodrink]

Any one help recap what happen why that girl slap book?

So no manners.

 

[nonameless]

Stop education at primary ... Tfr will fly

 

[A Better Tomorrow]

elites dontch want peasants to have more kids who will turn into criminals. it's the quality of chewren that is brought up as useful contributing members of society. that's why pushing for more ai and automation to replace peasants. too many peasants use up resources that elites want for their comfy lives.

Nonsense.

 

[Multiversal]

Beyond the financial costs, which are high for most Singaporeans, there is also the cost in personal time.

Everyone only has 24 hours each. More and more of us have to be caregivers to elderly parents. You know how much time you already have to spend at work. Now think of adding children to that. Children don't just need to be fed, they need to be nurtured, they need to be educated. It's not easy.

Some people are willing to make those sacrifices, some are not. There is no right or wrong. Not everyone is cut out to be a parent. You can't return the child to Taobao or Shopee because they didn't meet your expectations, or you got bored with them or you are too tired.

I think the reason why most people aren't having kids, or aren't having more kids, is a mix of these factors. That is why simply throwing money is not working; it is only addressing 1 of the many causes.

The main reason would likely be that people aren't willing to give up their existing lifestyles. How are you going to convince the DINKs to choose having kids which will result in having less time and money and space for themselves? The DINKs are not wrong, and they are not selfish. You have to want kids for the right reasons. If not, better don't ruin the child's life.

So how to come up with solutions? There are already countries facing the same problem that have tried more radical approaches: 1 year paid maternity leave, throwing of much more money than us. We can already see that those paths won't work for us. Which employer is willing to give 1 year paid leave? Not even the government is willing to do that, I am sure.

Just look at the Baby Bonus. Every time there is an increase in the cash portion, the hospitals raise the delivery charges by the same quantum. This is learnt from firsthand experience. All it does is make the delivery almost free. After that you are on your own.

So why is the birth rate not enough, is a tough question to answer, and is not a problem unique to Singapore. It is just changing of people's mindsets with the times, and there is no stopping it.

If you leave it to a certain Minister (name redacted because of Cooling off Day), he will probably come up with NoPopNoJob, and that may actually solve the problem (but create new ones)

#mehmehpiak

If you marry early, it could mean your parents helping to look after your kids who are their grandkids. There is even a danger that they spoil the grandkids.

What you wrote above applies if you marry very late, and your parents are now very old, and need you to look after them...or else it's nursing home for them.

 

[Brionic]

Sg wife not want to give birth?

too many bbfa, scaring away the ladies

 

[yesman2978]

Boat always turn straight at the bridge.. moi don’t believe things will crumble like soft biscuits .. humans are resilient.. things are not as inflexible as they seem to be.. look at older generations in the 50-60s.. do you really think they plan ahead when they have 6-7 kids with no stable jobs? The most some kids die and some given away but the family line continueS

Not this boat

 

[Unic0rn]

choose having kids which will result in having less time and money and space for themselves?

to solve these issues, we need to give them time, money and space, start building larger 5-room HDB and give them to married couples to have children and by giving them time and money maybe can say if you have a child, you will have paid leave at 300% your last drawn pay until your child is 21 years old? solve the time and money issue?