Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Why so many book taxis and not enough babies?

The press said that more book taxis in stronger economy, but in actual fact, this has nothing to do with economy. These are the real reasons why more book taxis...

  • Because all the taxis are either at the airport or IRs.

  • Because more taxis taking part in Operation Shadow where they hid in the bushes (or kopitiam) and wait.

  • Because it is too easy to book a taxi by dial-a-cab, sms-a-cab, iPhone-a-cab, online-book-a-cab...

  • Because more people are getting more impatient.

  • Because more people saw that more people are booking taxis, so they also book.

  • Because more people have given up on over-crowded MRT trains.

  • Because more people have given up on over-crowded buses.

  • Because more people cannot afford a COE.



The press also said that Singapore’s total fertility rate has plunged to a record low. So here are the reasons why less babies...

  • Because more married couples are put off by the idea that they have to queue up over-night for their kids' place in a kindergarten.

  • Because more married couples are still saving up for the medical costs to give birth.

  • Because more married women want to keep their promotions.

  • Because more married women want to keep their jobs.

  • Because more married couples are busy working OT to be Cheaper, Better, Faster.

  • Because more unmarried couples could not find a reasonable flat that is affordable.

  • Because more singles could not find a Singapore-born Singaporean boyfriend/girlfriend.

  • I wanted to state the last reason as because there are more gays, but I'm worried that MDA might rate my post as NC16.

4 comments:

Daily Struggles of a Singaporean Joe said...

Recently I started visiting your blogs and I do like yr sense of humour. I really think that the Singaporean spouse/BF/GF is a dying species. Alot of my friends or their siblings etc are not planning to settle down. I was once like them. We cannot afford HDB, money for weddings, earn enough to attract a local gal as we are better, faster but cheaper. I married a foreigner and my ex-classmate is going to marry one too this year. My wife gave birth but her PR application gets rejected! How can we plan for baby no.2? One day I may leave Singapore because this is no longer a country that cares for Singaporeans. Imagine now they are replacing us not only because of GDP but low fertility. As if it is our fault. Everything is just too expensive while we are getting cheaper by being faster and better!

Unknown said...

firstly, thks for visiting my blog! :)

yah, life is not easy as a Singaporean, esp when the gahmen is constantly threatening to bring in more others when we dun give birth to enuff babies... but hang in there!

Alan Wong said...

Actually we have a solution right at home.

Our fellow Malay brothers and sisters have a slightly better birth rate than the other races.

Why do you think our PAP govt does not encourage us to learn from them at least play catch up with them to better the current fertility rate ? Think hard.

Sorry no prizes for the right answers.

Daily Struggles of a Singaporean Joe said...

Malays are not allowed to abort their babies and they receive some form of subsidies. They benefit most from baby bonus compared to Chinese. Sometimes when u bring a baby into this world especially Singapore u wonder how tough they have to slog their guts out to compete for a decent living. Sad.