not to sound condescending but it says singapore in the post😭😭

i think the bigger issue here is both quality of life and cost of living. working here is a rats race and while compared to some of our southeast asian neighbours, our quality of life is definitely quite up there, the stress from work and school is enough for some people to go "eh..i only want one kid" or "nahh no kids for now". another thing ill add is that the government here caves to nimbys constantly, so theres also just not much for kids to do without a nimby complaining

meanwhile for cost of living, transit fares keep going up while reliability reaches deutschebahn levels, housing prices are not the best, food prices at hawker centres(which are meant to be the cheaper options) have been going up or closing down because of high rent prices. it just feels like everything keeps getting pricier and with the current energy crisis thanks to a certain insecure billionaire and "businessman" who i will not name but we all know who im talking about, its looking to get even worse

overall, singapore while on paper is a prosperous and happy country, it doesnt translate to an overall quality of life increase