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With fertility rate dropping to the 1.14 for the Chinese population, this is definitely a worry trend. As parent of 2 beautiful daughters, I think we need to have radical change in the policy to encourage especially the Singapore Chinese to produce more. It is a very nice gesture that the Government provides so many incentives to encourage the birth rate. Is it enough? Or these incentives targeted wrongly when many Singaporean do not have good financial planning? Or is it that there are no enough Singaporean men that can meet the expectation of the Singaporean women? Is there a study on whether Singaporean men graduate have any problems of finding a mate and what is %? Are Singapore men having disadvantage in terms of education after spending 2 years in NS compared to their foreigner male peers? Should we provide incentives to our men so that they can study hard and meet the expectation of Singaporean women? These questions only target the marriage portion of the problem and the understanding our culture where men always seen invisibility to be the breadwinner. As to why Singaporean fertility is low, some may point to the existing couple as role models whether they are good or bad. Generally, the current couples with children are worse off financially. It would be not be unrealistic to think that newly weds would see themselves worse off financially by at least 40%.....what does it mean? It mean that the couple may be able to afford a lifestyle they preferred (e.g owning a car or condo…quality goods) if they do not have any children. How can the government help to manage these aspirations? Many would point to changing the mindset. But is it easy to change mindsets? Many insurance companies also influence this attitude as they highlight the high cost of bringing up a child. There are always self sacrificing who are willing to give up financially gain for the joy of having children. It is obvious these are few going by the fertility rate of 1.14. So what should we do? Radical change: Give enough obvious incentive for the married couple who have the 2 or more children. This may mean that the singles and married couple without children would feel that they are shortchanged if they do not have any children. The current situation is that being singles and married couple without children are flexibility, employable, enjoyable and financially better. Why would they want to change? We need to balance the equation of these 3 groups. Just my 2 cents worth for thoughts. Thank you.
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