NPTD: Our Population, Our Future

I downloaded this yesterday but as usual have little time to look at it as closely as I had hoped. This morning they are discussing this on radio but since I am not driving at this time, I haven't tuned in.

My daughter sometimes remarked that we cannot keep growing by increasing our population. No matter how creative we are at creating new spaces, we will eventually run of room for expansion. The young naturally think this way as they have many decades here.

For something so long term, a smart government should make a special effort to reach out to the young on this. Help them own this. It will give them a sense of empowerment and belonging. Afterward by extension you can draw in their parents.

Peter Drucker was right that the silver haired are selfish and think little of the next generation except those belonging to their families. This will lead to the unintended Tragedy of the Commons scenario. The younger generation do not know that this may be the only government in the world that think and care more about their future than any in the world. The more experienced and powerful voice of the old will try even harder to make their final days here more pleasant, but it will often come at the expense of the young. In fact Law and Foreign Affairs minister K. Shanmugam had rued publicly about this. On this the Chinese concept of filial piety is easily abused. I was fortunate that my late parents always place their grand childrens' welfare ahead of theirs. I know some parents see their children as their pension plan. A very bad idea for the kind of world we live in today.

Update: 9:35

I just read this from AsiaOne which is based on the NPTD issues paper. Still thinking about my daughter's view, I think all existing measures are only good for buying us time for a more durable and sustainable solution to future growth. We have no choice but figure a way (we have time) to shift towards creating wealth that use more knowledge, insight and creativity than adding hard inputs like manpower, energy and especially land. On this we we have find our own solutions than copy/adapt from elsewhere because most competing cities can grow into surrounding land.