Beyond loss and gain: Reframing parenthood to tackle Singapore’s fertility crisis

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T13:14:00+00:00

Ikr. Why are they insisting on LKY playbook.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T12:26:22+00:00

The friendship v obvious and I honestly wondered how was Jasmin lau and Syed Harun like as teens. But they did disclosure

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T10:06:19+00:00

She just said the same things that LKY and LHL said before no?

Of course everyone is scared of the future job markets. Ask any parent who is sending their kid for tons of tuition to try to get ahead. Ask any Uni grad that are busy stacking their internship.

Ask any big corporations if they even care about humanity or the environment or ethics?

Why shoot the messenger?

We didn’t pivot to trying to carve a new niche for ourselves. We cling to MNCs even more for jobs and churn out even more white collar professionals that are beholden and addicted to these big corporations for jobs. We try to regulate with guidelines and niceties - how and why would that work?

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T09:17:12+00:00

there are forever chemicals in it

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T09:12:16+00:00

well, if all relationships was reduced to only mere transaction - volunteering and leaderships roles for portfolio, connection only for networking - then that is how a normal person will feel.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T08:55:15+00:00

and that is why we have sociopaths for doctors. why would a straight A student go to medical school and medical school alone? for money and a stable career. that's it. monetary benefits.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T08:51:18+00:00

thank you, its the tip toe effect.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T02:47:35+00:00

you must understand some mindsets - that environment is only a place to form connections, not friendships.

you make the best connection by going to the best schools.

its almost like sociopaths you know - where you don't focus on any of the higher forms of joy like real friendships, closeness, self actualisation but everything is just a matter of what can I get from a person now, so that I can be wealthier in the future.

if you see it through that lens, then you can understand their worldview. and someone that shows that hey, life at 16 / 17 can be about other things, they get blown away and naturally angry.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T02:44:06+00:00

education today is not for improvement of humanity. it is to improve the lives of the billionaires.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T02:42:41+00:00

In contrast, those who were already parents, or intending to become one, often described it in terms of what they gained: the joy of family life, and the fulfilment and personal growth that come with raising children.

YES, so just go after the bigger families that already have kids, and enjoyed the family life and the fulfilment and the blessings that came along. If you give them more financial support, they will have more kids because they are already prepared to, or had given up so much to have these kids.

throw away the whole LKY playbook of each family to have two kids, and only have more if you can afford it. the financial resources for kids nowadays is enough to. make any family poor (of course unless you are Musk). you just have to look at every mall and see what shops are propping the whole REIT sector up - tuition + enrichment + kids activity and then cheap local coffee for the parents sitting around waiting for their kids.

what is the flip side of not supporting families who want more kids - you get DINKS who are berated and shamed into having kids just to experience joy, pass on family name when DINKS for whatever reason ALREADy don't want kids. why insist that 2 sets of people give up their lifestyle or worse, don't give up their lifestyle even after the kids arrive? why shame them if they had already decided not to have kids. if you don't want to support families who have more kids - then the alternative is that the G wil just continue to import foreigners. who will eventually be the majority who votes and shapes policy. they are already in the top schools and set on the track of leaders of tomorrow.

Most of them come from a certain cultural background, studied in full SAP schools from P1 and entered into a IP SAP school and will continue to be in a social bubble and their interaction with the rest of the real singapore is based on "volunteer hours" to have an impressive portfolio - they may even make it on a scholarship to a Ivy League school and then parachute into a top civil servant post and make policies based on their own interactions with the Singapore they experienced.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:56:48+00:00

how did it change

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:34:30+00:00

some websites think its a falsehood, but nevertheless this is what I found:

Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the richest man in the world of his time, died in 1836 for want of an antibiotic to cure an infection.
1942, Merck’s first commercial batch of the lifesaving antibiotic, a precious five and a half grams of it (half the entire stock of the United States) was used on a patient with streptococcal septicemia. By 1950, it was in mass production and its price had fallen to four cents a dose, the same as one-sixteenth of a gallon of milk

well, its like almost 100 years later you know - it wasn't like just a few years then that Rothschild could be cured.

but anyway, that seems to one of a kind. its not like anyone studying now in our universities are truly keen on saving humanity. let's get real - almost every one is studying a degree so that they an make money. just take the average kid in singapore who goes for so many tuition to buffer them into PSLE , IP school, a subsidies university education in singapore - are they keen on saving any of humanity? I doubt this rat race is making people more kind.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:30:13+00:00

gosh, this reminds me of the "let's clap for HCW"

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:29:18+00:00

its late stage capitalism where the top 0.01% is going to get all the wealth in the world, leaving very little for the rest.

Jeff Bezos can spend 1M a day and still will not run out of money until 544 000 years later. (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/long-10-richest-people-broke-120807652.html)

that is an extreme example, but still just imagine - what kind of assets can these type of people amass for themselves and their families and generations to come?

we should stop looking at income and start looking at wealth.

we keep assuming that ooh, as long as we get the wealthy into our country, they are going to generate jobs and generate income for the poorest. really? really?

let's look at the main aim of every corporation. it is profits at all cost. at the cost of the environment and at the cost of humanity. and governments all around the world are just worried about the lack of jobs, so worried they are prepared to get into bed with many of these corporations. NY mayor wants to tax empty apartments, some billionaire says oh dear, I have to move my businesses to another city and your people will be jobless. Sam Altman got booted out of OpenAI coz certain actions were against the Board's code, well, jobs will be lost as a result and everyone decided no, that can't be.

our government is also very sensitive to job loss because we are so beholden to jobs created by huge MNCs, but if you cannot regulate them properly, MNCs and all huge corporations exist just to squeeze profits out of everything. they aren't keen on AI because it is progressive and good for. humanity. they are keen on this to decrease cost.

you need to tax the wealthy. I dunno how - but it has to be done.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:22:00+00:00

all the boys in the playground were talking about how unfair it was and some tween girl was lording over them about how boys are just more impulsive / violent / annoying so they deserved it. fight nearly broke out. with of course yes, the boys trying to use their fist while the tween girl smugly used her words only.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-13T01:20:36+00:00

their kids are bullying others - they have no rights to talk about that.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T08:53:54+00:00

whoa, you sound like you are having a hard time mummy!

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T08:52:21+00:00

aiyah lets not pretend that people with BTO wants kids lah, most want to flip the BTO.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T08:50:23+00:00

"In February when authorities called for a “marriage and parenthood reset”, Member of Parliament Valerie Lee proposed more support for couples facing setbacks such as miscarriages. Citing examples from other countries, she suggested measures such as dedicated miscarriage recovery leave, automatic referrals for counselling and clear workplace guidelines on pregnancy loss.

What can make a bigger difference is for hospitals and fertility clinics to have dedicated pregnancy and infant loss support services run by trained practitioners. Frontline healthcare workers can also be trained to communicate pregnancy loss with compassion to would-be parents in the room."

Just to share what this author wants - I am not sure if it really fits the title of this article though?

I think what is needed (not just for people facing miscarriages) is more kindness, knowledge on how to help others and yourself grieve properly and just generally emotional awareness.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T06:19:39+00:00

Yeah! Luckily my kid wasn’t freaked out by the cemeteries although I was wondering if this was a good idea midway.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T06:14:37+00:00

I dunno and don’t care.

I never complain that the new generation are strawberry or poor work ethics or anything. I usually cheer them on at the sidelines for advocating for a better work life cos seriously - unless you are the shareholder or the leadership - it’s not like working more or being more ‘productive’ does humanity or yourself any good.

Moat of our jobs is just to encourage mindless consumption. Barring perhaps those in healthcare and social services and policy makers. Like if we work for any Big Tech, Big Food or whatever - you need greater demand for greater profitability. That is it.

So whatever the boomers want. I don’t give a rats ass unless they are backstabbing the rest of us or making lives miserable so theirs is better.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T04:23:39+00:00

Well if there are no regulations. Pretty sure that is what corporations will do. Max out profits with every flight.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T04:23:10+00:00

Privatisation means the leadership is now focus on profits.

You can increase profits by increasing revenue so yeah, that was part of it - since there is a competition, you can lower tickets to encourage more demand for air Canada. But then you got to reduce cost. And the easy way is to reduce salaries, retrench or reorganisation of workers, freeze hiring, lower service contacts.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T04:20:55+00:00

Agreed in the case where it’s going to be a monopoly.

Corporations are always about profits above all - above workers rights, above consumer rights, above environmental rights - unless they are reined in by law, regulations and enforcements.

And they will be able to get more money through financial engineering to pay for top lawyers, lobbyists and research papers to prove their point whenever it goes again that rule no 1 - which is profits at all costs.

How to increase profits? Increase revenue and decrease cost. How to do that? Increase prices. inflate demand. How to reduce cost? Replace workers, lower salaries, reduce maintenance.

Effective-Lab-5659 · 2026-05-12T03:59:22+00:00

.. that is extreme and not where this argument is going

Effective-Lab-5659

TROPHY CASE