The MP technically spoke to truth, but all the more it's the Government's fault that our TFR is low.
Paraphrasing Jasmin Lau, people dont wanna have kids because they are comfortable with their current lifestyle and dont want to sacrifice it in order to have kids. I would argue there is alot of truth in that statement.
But lifestyle inflation should come with affluent countries. After all, a richer country like SG would want its citizens to be living better lives than in the past, no? Yet, what we have is higher CoL, and also shrinking house sizes.
It's expensive to have kids, so that is a financial sacrifice. So why does it feel like the G isnt trying to stop the rising CoL?
And the shrinking house sizes. Compare old and new homes, the old homes almost felt like too much space for 2 people to live in, that having an extra kid or two didnt feel cramped. But now with 3 or 4 room flats, having an extra person running around makes it more cramped. So who wanted to shrink houses? Not to mention no more 5 rooms going to be built (i think). Why else are resale prices going up? Because people (and i assume families) value space, space that was basically a given in the past now requires a premium.
So yes, people wouldnt want to sacrifice what they have now for kids. So why no policies to favour those who have/will be having kids? If anything, the PAP should be throwing policies out which heavily favor people who have/are having kids, such that their lifestyles are almost as good as the past.
(No, of course no free domestic helper or some nonsense like that)
Do I have the solution? No lah, im not paid millions. But i want to just express a lone citizen's opinions on how it feels like the government got it backwards, or have some backdated opinion on modern day society.