PM: 10, 25 and 50 years critical challenges

The PM in a speech and Q&A in SMU identified three critical challenges for our future. They have different time frames.

10 years - the economy
25 years - population
50 years - national identity

This is well and good but a recurring thought in my mind as I read was the pressure to get the economy to perform is likely to lead to sacrifices make everywhere else including the challenges from population (25 years) and national identity (50 years).

So satisfy the economy first and the leftovers for everything else. If we do that we will not end well but we if fail to put enough resources in the economy we might under perform. Business life has simply become that tough. When your competitors ignore the longer term consequences and yet in the short term you are under pressure to out compete them, you really have a problem. 

Somehow given their size, resources and geopolitical positions they could throw caution to the win and recover from their irresponsibility. We on the other hand have not such option.