Poverty in Singapore?

This post will talk about the views of the government and the research done about poverty in Singapore, pictures of poverty in Singapore, and links of videos to watch to build our knowledge on poverty in Singapore. 

Firstly, being poor in Singapore is often being frowned upon by the government. 

The Economist had summed up the Singapore’s government’s approach, by saying that, “the state's attitude can be simply put as being poor in Singapore is their own fault, and that citizens are obliged to save for the future, rely on their families and not expect any handouts from the government unless they hit rock bottom.”

Our government has tended to believe that if the poor remains poor, it is because they are not “hardworking” enough and that they should buck up. And so, the poor shouldn’t deserve any more financial assistance than the government is willing to give.

However, new research has shown that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. And it is suggested that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. 

One of the research's authors had said that past research has often blamed poverty on the personal failings of the poor. For example, they do not work hard enough; they are not focused enough. Another of the research's author had said that previous research often has assumed that poor people are poor because they are somehow less capable than others.

However, this research has found that poverty consumes so much mental energy that people struggling to make ends meet often have little brainpower left for anything else, leaving them more susceptible to bad decisions that can perpetuate their situation.

Simply put, the poor are not poor because they choose to. The poor are not less hardworking because they do not want to work hard. The poor are poor because the system and policies entraps them in a state of chronic poverty. When they are labelled as being “less hardworking”, it is actually because they had to spend so much time thinking about how to make ends meet that they simply don’t have enough attention to divert to other things.

It is not a choice for the poor to be poor. They are forced to accept low wages and low social welfare support, if any is even given at all. When that happens, they have to constantly think about how to support themselves and their children, and they have to think about which other low-paying jobs they need to find to sustain themselves. Can we blame them if they are already trying so hard to simply live, that they have no time to think about anything else?

But usually, the poor are elderly being chased out by their children and have to sustain their own lives by picking up cardboard boxes, drink cans, newspapers and many others to sell and earn money.

Pictures of poverty in Singapore:

The old woman (as seen in the above picture) is searching for things in the rubbish dump to sell to earn money. She has a very serious condition of a hunchback and looks very frail. 

This is a picture of an old man lying down near a pile of things he is selling. Many people who are waiting at the pedestrian crossing does not even care about him and continues to do their own things. I think that those people should at least take a glance at him and buy something from him like a packet of tissue to help him to survive.

I think that we, as Singaporeans, should help those in need of our help as much as possible so that Singapore will be a better place to live in and will leave a good impression on tourists who came to Singapore. 

I found some videos that may help you to know more about the topic and help you to be able to help those people in poverty. 

This is a moving story of a Singaporean family:

 http://youtu.be/QkEwN_0--tY

This is a video about a survey done by the National University of Singapore (NUS): 

http://youtu.be/50jBfuABYXg

I hope that after reading more about the poverty in Singapore, you will start to help our fellow citizens to make both their's and our lives better in the near future!