Many of you may not have seen this poster before and I guess it has been a no no for it to be shown again in public by our government these days. Ironically this may be one of their best campaigns ever.However this also proved that the government do make mistakes and it took them about 10 years to realise it and 20yrs trying to reverse it with no success.
The stop at two campaigns was launched by the Singapore government in 1972 to limit population growth. Singaporean was pressured to stop at two and those who have 3rd child or more are made to pay heavily financially. Couples who did not stop at two enjoyed less income tax relief, paid more in hospitalisation fees and had maternity leave reduced.
My parents came from big family and I guess the mindset of Singaporean in the 60s and 70s were to have a big family as well. But due to measure put in by the government then people have to settle with 2 kids max. I can just imagine how many abortions took place because the parents cannot afford to have the 3rd kid then.
So why are Singaporean not production? Even top mind and scholar from the Men-in-whites camp cannot solve the problem. Or should I say they don’t want to solve the problem with sacrifices to the national economic growth and hence their own bonus.
To me the solutions are not that difficult. You just have to make the cost of living in Singapore low and have a pro family society.
In the 70s HDB flat are not so expensive and heck even car and food are not that expensive. Although wages are low but I still remember my family of four still are able to survive with the single income from my Dad. Mum was a full time housewife that took care of the household chores and kids. Life was simple and fun.
So all the government have to do today to improve birth rates is to lower the cost of living in Singapore, revamped the education system to make it more fun rather then stressful, have a pro family work places and things will take care of itself.
You just have to scarify a bit of your GDP and stop treating Singapore as a company where money is everything. A country is more then money, it is a place where people live, work, play and nourish the next generation.
I guess money really cannot buy everything.
