Friday, July 09, 2010

Young people in Singapore

Are young people happy with the situation in Singapore?

Here are the positive sides:
  • they are well educated
  • they are able to get jobs quite easily
  • they get special attention from the leaders - who make the effort to engage the young, e.g. Youth Olympic Games
The key negative factor is the high cost of housing, i.e. HDB flats, by most young people probably accept it as a fact of life in Singapore and are not aware about the alternative choices.

Do you agree with this assessment?

3 comments:

  1. First, the policy of giving the incentives to Singaporeans to have more babies - failed. Second, the policy of importing (one and half million of them) so called 'talented people' within a short frame of time has angered many locals because Today, we have not seen any improvements in our overall productivities despite that big number of population injection. It means the policy did not benefit Singapore or Singaporeans in term of the quality of life. There is definitely a third alternative existed - the young must start to engage the government leaders and demand a solution. Get interested in politics that really change people's life. Speak out and stand up for Singapore.

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  2. No, Mr Tan I don't agree with the above points:
    - Majority of younger people have a tertiary degree, so the prestige and tangibles that come associated with a good education is not as pronounced as it was one generation ago
    - I beg to differ on the jobs part, especially with the liberalization of immigration policies in the past few years. Specifically the flood of S-Pass holders who now compete with fresh grads for jobs.
    - Special attention in the form of YOG? I think most people didn't ask for it and couldn't care less. There are better ways to spend taxpayer monies.

    As a young person I refuse to accept high cost of housing as a fact of life. I refuse to be trapped in an "asset rich cash poor" cycle. I can always choose to migrate overseas.

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  3. i think that young people are generally not engaged and keeping tabs on politics and what's going on around them.

    Ignorance is bliss

    Viewed in this aspect, yes they are happy

    Relative to other developing countries, Singapore does offer many positive sides including those cited

    But to progress, we should continue to benchmaark against the better and try to do it "betterer" than them, and to achieve the "betterest"!

    I believe young people pursuing an education are generally happy as they are oblivious to the surrounding. Afterall their job is just to pursue an education course blindly. However once they started work, they will soon face reality - no job, got job but so little pay, cannot afford flat, high medical fees etc

    Jerome

    ReplyDelete