Why the future for our young is bleak under the PAP |
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By Tan Kin Lian  The future for our young will be bleak under the PAP. Why? Here are my reasons: a) The cost of living is too high. It has increased significantly over the past few decades. They are fueled by high property prices, increase in GST rates, inefficient work processes and high operating costs. b) Young people will find it increasingly difficult to secure jobs due to competition from foreign workers. Employers prefer to engage foreign workers who are willing to accept lower wages and do not face the disruption caused by NS reservist duties. c) HDB flats are costly. This is mitigated to some extent by government grants, but the net cost is still beyond the budget of many working families, even when both spouses work. d) Even those who are able to land jobs that pay more than decently face the risk of losing them for a variety of reasons. When their rice bowls are shattered, it will be difficult for such individuals to get find equally well paying employment. e) Many young people find it difficult to buy a HDB flat, even with grants from the government and financial support from their parents. They delay getting married or remain single. They find it costly to raise children. Some prefer to have no children or at most one child. It is a bleak future for young people in Singapore. We may not be suffering as terribly as folks living in Hong Kong, but problems presently faced by our young right here are still quite daunting. If their parents are affluent, they may not feel the impact just yet. Those fresh out of school without affluent parents backing them on the other hand will find it hard to meet the high costs of housing and living. Many young people have jobs that pay reasonably well. But they will soon realize that no single job lasts forever. They only need look at the people who lost their jobs upon turning older. They should ponder carefully - what if this happens to me? The solution is to have a new government that is willing to pursue an entirely different economic strategy. The new strategy should focus on reducing the cost of living, and providing better job security for our locals. It also has to address many other challenges that were not solved by the current PAP government; indeed these were aggravated over the years. Our young people should therefore ask themselves - do we want to vote for change? This first appeared as a post on the Facebook wall of Tan Kin Lian on 26 August 2019. Do join in the discussion over there if you have thoughts to share. |
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