As I'm swamped with legal cases to process, I can't really do an in-depth analysis of this question. What we do know is that marriage rates have gone down quite drastically this year so it's time to ask ourselves this question :
Is there a marriage strike going on right now ?
Based on my cursory knowledge, I don't think women are responsible for this sudden dip. Marriages in Singapore are largely stable and with domestic help, Singapore is one of the best places in the world to raise kids. Could it be because women are performing better at work and have more financial autonomy ? I think not likely, as even if local men do not meet the expectations of women, foreign men do.
I am inclined to think that the problem lies with us men. More and more Singaporean men are not meeting women's expectations in pay and educational standards but suppose we take that out of the equation, I think we're entering this golden age where we guys can replicate an aspect of a good marriage without actually getting into ROM. Sex with prostitutes is legal here, and entertainment is one Steam download away from being fulfilled. The government has now given up and allows singles to obtain a BTO flat.
Effectively, we need to look at the problem of marriage rates differently from the past. In the past men and women want to get married, that was the only way to get sex and entertainment beyond TV. These days, singles are essentially married to themselves. Policy needs to give them reasons to divorce themselves and marry someone nice who comes by.
Singles give up autonomy when they go into ROM.
Sadly, I don't have a policy solution to the problem of marriage rates. Married couples have enough benefits from the tax-payer, it's the singles who have plenty of entertainment and no longer need marriage in their lives. One drastic possibility would be to reduce the work-week so that singles may get bored and marry out of boredom. ( Hypothetical, because the dudes can just play more computer games and spend more time at Geylang )
So thinking about this issue has largely been unproductive without a major breakthrough.
But I did achieve one single insight.
We married folks have a very irritating tendency to work this way : When we see two people who might have similar flaws, we automatically think that potentially they might be soul-mates and so we try to introduce them to each other. The logic is that the pairing of the lowest denominator will take place once all options have been exhausted.
This almost never works.
Consider the decision tree from party A's perspective. Even though I have flaw, I am essentially giving up this fantastic relationship I have with myself to hook up with this other flawed individual.
In conclusion, A will stick with himself or herself, thank you.
I think you are correct in thats its about self centeredness... Also Singapore is rather crowded, and humans do react to population pressures... Part of the problem might not be lowest common denominator, but a lack of available higher qualities as would seem logical in any modern and essentially decadent culture. I think potential couples are looking at each other and seeing that problems outweigh benefits... People will naturally team up into groups, but money has an independece factor to it. And if relationships are difficult,
ReplyDeletepeople will use money to avoid them..
I dont know child custody laws in Singapore, but I suspect the birth rate crash could be turned around via equalizing both parents.
Since Malthus, Elite have worried. but most of the problems have been caused by poor political/legal decisions and the effects of increasing money supply etc. People have been drawn into cities, by economics, and its really not sustainable long term.. We should be focusing money on rural areas, to reduce pressures on cities... if rural areas were the economic growth areas, many problems could be alleviated...
Basically humans will naturally produce more children in rural areas. I know Singapore is very limited, have visited years ago. But my point is that wise future investment is in rural areas near the city in question, and that borders are not the barriers to culture that they used to be, its more of an area of influence effect that is dependent on radius from the economic center than where imaginary lines were drawn centuries ago...
Borders are blockages, where people and their business are delayed and charged needless fees... this is 19th century thinking.
Really they need to be removed, and the criminal element punished and personally responsible, rather than holding up everyone and everything at borders...
I think in many ways Singapore must already understand this..