u/Any_Record7733

Many years ago, Singapore focused on biomedical, thinking it would one day become a hub for all the pharma firms. Grants were given out. The pharma stayed until the end of the grants and packed up, leaving many researchers scrambling for work. Then comes analytics, and then crypto. None went the way they intended. The new kid in town is AI. Singapore now wants to be the leader in AI application and usage. I'm just wondering if it is good for us to keep chasing the next shiny things. For me, when I take a look at Singapore, one strength stood out: our love for money. We are good with money. We are already a financial and wealth management hub. That should be our focus. We are also a trading hub. It fits out people's strength. The thing is if we keep hoping on the next shiny things, there will be casualties when they come to past.

I've been in a cushy pharma job, which pays decently and has certain level of meanings. However, my business unit is going to lose a major client, and I suspect soon the axe is going to fall on me. I have a decent war chest to survive. Wife's salary is enough to cover our monthly expenditure. But as the layoff getting closer, I can't help but feeling like shit. I am not sure what to tell my parents (they dont depend on me financially, but I'm usually the kind of son they are proud of and not worried about). I am not sure how to feel having no work. How would people see me, a man in his early 30s, staying at home. I am not sure how long it would take to find another job (looking at the market now, it's gonna be long). The job has always been a big part of my identity and now it is going soon. Guys who have been in this before, any advice?

I used to really appreciate his take on macroeconomics and sociology. However, since the start of the Iran war, the guy has been obssessed with crash timing. This is a fool's game in my opinion. Nobody knows where the top and bottom would be, until they have come to pass. This guy has convinced tons of people to wait for a bigger crash. Everyday since the war took a better turn, he kept saying things will get worse again, just trying to salvage his wrong predictions. When do people realize it is pointless to time the market? It is either you just DCA into the indexes, or you buy stocks from well-run and profitable companies.

For the past 1 week, everyone and their mother have been piling on the recruiter lady on CNA who said companies are laying of Singaporeans to hire people in Malaysia and Vietnam. But what is so controversial about that? Everyone is talking as if she said companies bring those people in. No. What is wrong with your English? "People in Malaysia" means they are still there. It means the jobs go there not the people coming in. This is in line with my own oservation. Jobs are being offshored. That is just fact. Why would people flame the lady for that? Some people also blame gov. What can gov do? Imagine an American company moving headcount to Malaysia or Thailand. That would be outside of our jurisdiction. Gov cannot do anything to stop them. And then the opposition people came in to say that it is happening because Singaporeans dont want to be exploited like Malaysians or Vietnamese. Exploited what? Those people are still in their own countries. So even if they earn 1/3 of us, they are still living the same lifestyle. To me, we have simply priced ourselves out of the game. We are just too expensive, and not worth the price for those companies. And we became expensive because we got rich earlier, so we have accumulated more wealth than those folks. There are only 2 solutions.

1 - get into the higher value sectors that other cheaper nations cannot do. But there is a limit to how we can do it, and who among ourselves can do it (you cannot expect every Singren to become an AI engineer).

2 - universal basic income (UBI) for those unable to upgrade themselves (aka cannot become AI engineers lol)

I have seen so many discussions going on about the TFR issues. Some people blame the gov for not supporting enough. Some people blame the individuals for not coupling up and procreating. But I think we have missed the point.

I have a son of my own. I can tell you that having kid is not a rational choice at all. No matter how you put it, it is a sacrifice on finance and time. Raising kids costs money and time, lots of them. No amount of gov support can ease the sacrifice. But some of us still choose to have kids, because we are just not rational. There is no rational way to convince somebody to have kids these days. Nobody needs a kid to take care of them in their old age. So why bother having kids? Some of us want to have a little version of ourselves to care for, some of us want to have something special together with our spouse to celebrate our love, some of us who already have a kid want to give them younger siblings to play with. None of those is rational at all. But that is the whole point. Love requires a certain amount of irrationality. Why would our ancestors even bother to have kids during war when shells were falling over their heads? Why would they have kids even during famines? Procreation is not supposed to be rational. Unfortunately, we have grown to embrace logic over feelings. We see life decisions as gain/loss equations. And this is not unique to us. Developed countries all have lower TFR than poorer counterparts. Singapore is an even extreme version of the developed world. We are perhaps one of the most advanced society in the developed world. Our public services run as effectively as they can. Our GDP per capita is top notch. Our people own million-dollar houses. None of that is possible without extreme rationality, not just from the gov but also from the citizens. But that is also our Achilles's heel. When we apply the same rational mindset to having kid, the resounding answer is a big NO.

The only way to push for more kids is to have a less rational mindset, as a society. That means we will need to slow down economically, we need to stay less competitive, we need to willingly let the competitors catch up materially, while we do the irrational choice of having kids. In my opinion, there is no world in which we remain as the most competitive and competent Asian tiger we are today, yet still manage to have lots of kids. I myself am happy with my own irrational choice. We still live in an HDB flat while my DINK friends mostly stay in condos. I cannot have my nights out with my bros like before, cannot travel overseas twice a year. But I am so happy every time I fetch my son from childcare, seeing him running towards me with a big smile. The question is, are there other people who are equally irrational as I am?