Lee Kuan Yew, as a legendary figure of Singapore, has made political achievements for all to see. During his decades as Singapore's prime minister, he transformed a once-lifeless city into a global trading and financial hub.
Even today, Lee Kuan Yew is one of the most influential figures in Singapore's political scene, and such a highly accomplished figure was worried about Singapore's demographic problems during his lifetime.
Singapore's population problem is a "stubborn disease"?
Although Singapore has long been among the developed countries, there are still many problems, especially the demographic problem, which has already caused him a headache when Lee Kuan Yew was alive.
Being able to make Singapore's prime minister feel imminent will inevitably affect Singapore's future development, and the growth rate of Singapore's population can be seen that this issue is indeed a difficult problem.
Lee Kuan Yew's concerns are not unreasonable, because it is true that Singapore's population is no longer willing to "confine themselves to the back house" and revolve around their husbands and children all their lives, because many young people are unwilling to get married, especially highly educated women, and thus lose themselves, which they refuse.
Of course, Lee Kuan Yew is also worried about the perception of Singaporean men, which is that they are more willing to "marry", and the common idea of most men is to marry women who are not as educated as themselves.
Therefore, the proportion of highly educated women in Singapore who marry men with the same education is very low, and they want to "get married", based on their high education, it will also discourage many men.
Lee Kuan Yew has tried to give Singaporean men a head start on this unbalanced trend of marriage and childbearing, and he wants men who have graduated from university to give preference to women with the same qualifications.
You must know that both husband and wife are elites, and the children they give birth to will be very advantageous in all aspects to a large extent.
In order to alleviate the problem of female university graduates not marrying, the Singapore government has even set up the Social Development Agency to provide more opportunities for male and female university graduates to communicate.
Painstaking efforts have been made to increase Singapore's population
When trying to solve Singapore's population problem, Lee Kuan Yew even proposed the "marriage debate", which caused a lot of repercussions at the time, and it did not achieve the effect he wanted, but affected the vote share of the People's Action Party in the next year's election.
However, Lee Kuan Yew still insisted on promoting many policies to increase the population, hoping that through his efforts, Singapore's population would increase.
If there is no way to change the marriage and love situation of Singapore's university graduates, then Singapore's birth rate will be lower and lower, and as the leader of a country, Lee Kuan Yew absolutely does not want to see this situation.
In order to increase Singapore's population, the Singapore government has even encouraged university graduates to get married with tax incentives. In addition, in order to increase the fertility rate, relevant policies have been introduced, and cash subsidies will be given as long as children are born.
Families who have one child and two children can get 8,000 Singapore dollars, if it is RMB, it is almost nearly 40,000 yuan, at least the cost of the child before the child enters kindergarten at the age of three, the Singapore government is equivalent to reimbursement.
In order to encourage the birth of babies, the Singapore government has also introduced the HDB flat system, so that most Singaporean residents do not have the pressure of housing. In this case, many people think that in a state of no worries, more young couples will be willing to have more children.
But the fact is that Singapore's fertility rate has not improved, and in the final analysis, the reason is not a material problem, but a change in people's attitudes.
Lee Kuan Yew's daughter chose not to marry and have children
"I can't solve Singapore's population problem", when Lee Kuan Yew said this, it can be seen how desperate he was at that time, which can make a country's prime minister feel pessimistic, which is enough to show that Singapore's population problem does threaten the country's development.
What made Lee Kuan Yew even more helpless was that his daughter Li Weiling also chose not to marry and have children. Even if they live in a family with loving parents, many highly educated girls do not think about getting married and having children.
If you don't meet your partner who thinks you're suitable, highly educated women prefer to live alone because their ideas have long since changed.
Nowadays, women are more willing to work hard outside their careers like men, thinking that this can better reflect the value of their lives, if they give up their careers and return to their families, and then live a life of "husband and children", they are absolutely unwilling.
In Lee Kuan Yew's view, today's women are more willing to live for themselves and live a comfortable life, so the previous policy of encouraging childbearing is obviously not effective for this type of woman.
All in all, not only is Singapore's fertility rate declining, but other countries are also facing this problem, and only by solving the root causes can the population be increased.
In other words, only by gradually guiding young people to change their conception of childbearing can they be willing to have more children, and will it be of greater significance to the country's stable development.
Resources:
The Straits Times "Why Lee Kuan Yew's Daughter Chose to Be Single"
The Paper "Lee Kuan Yew: How to Solve the Problem of "Leftover Women" in Singapore?
Sina Finance "Singapore's Fertility Rate Falls to the Lowest in 10 Years, and the Subsidy for One Child is 38,000 Yuan"