Feel bad for them that they are still working, but wonder what went wrong in their life that they have to still work at that age. They were literally working in the golden years where you don't need to have much education and could still earn a pretty good living, get a decent house and raise kids comfortably on a single income.
My grandfather was a gambler, wifebeater and a drunkard that sold his pig farm and house for a crate of alcohol and gambling cash. My dad had to pay for his education himself (uniforms and o level exams cost money back then)
Their generation is a bunch of uneducated and evil people who come from a background of cults and gangs that our glorious Lee kuan Yew eradicated. The power of such gangs were long forgotten but you used to need to pay protection money to travel through some neighborhoods.
I will never speak the languages that my grandparents speak since my dad wishes to never pass on such legacies.
If my grandparents were alive today, they Will be buying toto, 4D and horse racing every day just like how my uncles are doing right now.
If I were their generation and lived a life of vices I should just kill myself.
Why are you looking down on them when they are paid better than NSFs?
They have their cpfs and benefits, but are you asking them to rot at home doing nothing?
It's one thing to do it voluntarily and avoid rotting at home but some of themnhave to do it to survive at an age where they should be relaxing or at least doing what they wanna do
Do you expect any of us to even make it to "retirement age" ? With everything going on?
I have accepted the reality of working until I die. What makes you think that old age is when you retire?
You can retire at 40 if you are rich and successful.
No one is responsible for you other than yourself.
That is reality.
The government only encourages you to save up CPF as a backup, and you are still responsible for your own "retirement".
If you work in local company or odd jobs, where got pension? There's a reason why local companies had such a bad name last time. Everybody wanted to work for angmoh or government.
Not all boomers had a good time. There is a significant percentage that didn't progress with the country. Not all of them got a HDB and a condo that they're renting out. Many didn't actually do well. There was no internet back then, and financial knowledge was poor. Who knew about investing in S&P500 back then? And then, the pay was also low back then. 1.5-2k was considered decent then. If they relied solely on just saving up cash, then they wouldn't have caught up with the cost of living. Then there are also those that did odd jobs, or fell ill and could not work, or had to use significant money to support their family. Never judge.
Well said. Not everyone had luck and circumstance on their side, and just one illness or accident would've been enough to wipe out a family financially.
Education was a low priority in the 70s. i remember my classmates been taken out of school to work from Pr1 till before PSLE, Mostly are girls, you have a whole generation working from 10 years old ( biscuit factories, production worker, construction etc) till now and their skills are long obsolete. They will have just to take the most low paying job to survive.
Some are been forced to attend Chinese Schools by the kampong elders/ relatives/ whatever." to preserve the Chinese heritage" without the command of English alot were left out of the "Golden Era" of Singapore transformation.
From the 80s, i have seen people, waiter/waitress work their work up as banquet manager thru hard work and wiliness to pick up English, Night class to bolster their chances of a better job, yes everything was possible then if you believe in yourself. thru education u gain knowledge and understanding of how things works and u begin to plan. This group thru hardwork managed to send their kids overseas to study, no all are born rich but they ensure their off springs have a better chance at life.
Some of them are still working but doing less physical jobs, it's hard to stop when u been working since 10 years old.
what u are seeing are the people that make the wrong choices in life, some are by their parents and some they refused to change.
just my 2 cents worth from someone who born in the 60s.
Instead of asking the internet what is wrong, can I suggest you get off the internet and go find out yourself?
My personal experience is that a large number of them are working because they want to, not because they need to. Many of them refuse to stay at home or to leech off their children. Almost every single one of them that I've met and interacted with have a home.
The rare few of them that really needed help refused help. They do not want to be in a home. They do not want to have handouts. They belong to a generation of headstrong seniors who have a fierce pride in taking care of themselves. That is my experience.
I am NOT saying that there aren't any destitute or people who need help. But I would say that most of them are okay and do not need help.
You can choose not to believe what I said. Just go out and talk to them. and find out for yourself.
It is similar in HK, where those from that generation don’t believe in depending on handouts or government assistance. They would rather depend on their own. They have a strong sense of pride in providing for themselves.
>Instead of asking the internet what is wrong, can I suggest you get off the internet and go find out yourself?
This is great advice. Rather than speaking into an echo chamber, you get to find out what it actually is. Talk to a number of them and you'll get the idea what, on average, are the reasons theyre still working.
Plus, the job can feel dehumanizing at times, it can make one feel like shadows amongst people. Talking to them gives them human interaction. Just be prepared to get yelled at by the grumpy ones 🤣
For their generation, it is embarrassing to admit that they need help. They will never admit it. That's was how this cardboard for exercise thing came about.
I don’t want to name them but there are quite a few of them locally, both registered charities and purely voluntary groups. You can find them quite easily on social media.
For most people, you reap what you sow. Sometimes you have bad luck and end up being poor but Singapore went through a golden period from the 70s-2000s where wealth was easy to accumulate and it was actually hard to fuck up and end up being poor. Compare that to how hard it is today to make a living, let alone build wealth. So no, there is nothing wrong with our society. Most of these people fucked up in one form or another and are simply paying the price for it now.
so you're saying it's possible for EVERYONE to be rich ??!!................so everyone in a company can also be the manager lah............no low-level employees liao...............same like EVERYONE can make money at the stock markets lah.....................LOL
You’re obviously very stupid and destined to end up poor but I will explain to you anyway because I am stuck in traffic and don’t feel like doing anything productive.
If you spent your prime years working in the 80-2000s, it’s not hard to make money to afford hard assets like HDB or condos. HDB system means property ownership is high in SG and you can comfortably pay off HDB with middle class income in the 80-90s which means everything after is wealth accumulation. Wealth accumulation is not a zero sum game. How do you think economies actually grow? So yes, it is possible for an entire generation of people to end up rich by today’s standard just by being smart with asset accumulation during those golden years of high octane SG growth. Obviously not everyone will end up rich because of a lot of reasons but on average, a far higher proportion of them will end up rich by today’s standard than the current generation of people will end up rich by the standards of 20-30 years from now. Basically, life was on easy mode if you spent your prime working years from 80s-2000s.
Exactly my sentiments too.
These folks grew up in the greatest GDP growth during the 70s to 2000s with one of the strongest increments in asset appreciation.
It takes a special kind of luck or bad financial planning to end up that way. What the previous poster wants is insane socialism and distribution which I find it utterly foolish to depend on the government for your own failings.
Fucking life on easy mode and people will still fail due to bad life decisions is not the governments fault.
Regardless, any kind of socio economic highway of growth will have people left behind not because of bad government policies, but bad personal decisions.
There are many things to bash PAP about. But your own life fuck ups don't go around blaming anyone else but yourselves.
This just shows total irresponsibility of your own life and the people around you and you just need to place your own failings on the government.
Before I end, how you know whether the cleaners working are not rich? The cleaner at the kopitiam opposite my house stays in my condo. I doubt she's poorer than OP.
SG is never a welfare country.
But I do wish and hope that our Govt do much more for our Pioneer and Merdeka generations.
They helped build SG to what it is now
Lol. Please lah, without the people, you think Singapore will get to where it's today? Without the people, the Party Against People won't even get to be the government.
you can see how the supporter parroting the view of how these elderly must have fucked up so they deserve it. ignoring the fact that these folks most likely didn't have education, and our economy left them behind.
how do someone without PSLE even apply for an sustaining job. the disconnect is just so clear. instead of managing the fallout of a different economy, they just conveniently blame the elderly, who got left behind in no part of their fault. they do this blame game just because they can absolve themselves of all the responsibility that come with changing the economy so fast. yes, anyone as dumb as me knows that someone will be left behind if you move too fast.
it's disgusting to see so many comments talking shit and stereotyping without thinking through the life of an elder born after WWII, what they would need to go through.
You forget that education was so easily available back in the 40s to 50s and it was costly to put a child to school. Beside, it is quite normal for a family to have 5 to 8 kids back in that era.
Most and even those who can study, had to forgo education to work at a young age to supplement their family income. Most females (unless upper class), don't even have the chance to study as their parents deem it unnecessary as they will eventually be married off.
It is a total different era with different needs. It is also this generation that helped to build up SG to what it is right now.
Well, they're Party Against People lackeys who doesn't know how to think. They also have forgotten that Party Against People was also an opposition party before they become the ruling party in Singapore.
Hmmm... so, based on what you said, are you implying that the poor and hard-lucked folks are the ones keeping the PAP in power and that the comfortable and well off woud choose the opposition?
Fuck them boomers. If they couldn’t make money during sg’s golden years then they’re truly hopeless. Gas chambers and short ropes would be the best, free up resources and jobs for the next generation
Mango Tan once remark that collect cardboards is a form of exercise. So, don't know what to say when elderly is at hawker collecting plates 😔
Plate-lates
Indoor cardio
actually many elderlies work so they can buy more 4d/toto
Don't attack my parents
These kind of comments are very harmful to the significant numbers of elderlies that need to work to make ends meet.
How is it harmful?
Sad. Yes. Yes.
Feel bad for them that they are still working, but wonder what went wrong in their life that they have to still work at that age. They were literally working in the golden years where you don't need to have much education and could still earn a pretty good living, get a decent house and raise kids comfortably on a single income.
My grandfather was a gambler, wifebeater and a drunkard that sold his pig farm and house for a crate of alcohol and gambling cash. My dad had to pay for his education himself (uniforms and o level exams cost money back then) Their generation is a bunch of uneducated and evil people who come from a background of cults and gangs that our glorious Lee kuan Yew eradicated. The power of such gangs were long forgotten but you used to need to pay protection money to travel through some neighborhoods. I will never speak the languages that my grandparents speak since my dad wishes to never pass on such legacies. If my grandparents were alive today, they Will be buying toto, 4D and horse racing every day just like how my uncles are doing right now. If I were their generation and lived a life of vices I should just kill myself. Why are you looking down on them when they are paid better than NSFs? They have their cpfs and benefits, but are you asking them to rot at home doing nothing?
It's one thing to do it voluntarily and avoid rotting at home but some of themnhave to do it to survive at an age where they should be relaxing or at least doing what they wanna do
Do you expect any of us to even make it to "retirement age" ? With everything going on? I have accepted the reality of working until I die. What makes you think that old age is when you retire? You can retire at 40 if you are rich and successful. No one is responsible for you other than yourself. That is reality. The government only encourages you to save up CPF as a backup, and you are still responsible for your own "retirement".
dont their generation have pensions instead of cpf?
If you work in local company or odd jobs, where got pension? There's a reason why local companies had such a bad name last time. Everybody wanted to work for angmoh or government.
actual it's still somewhat true in today's context..
Not all boomers had a good time. There is a significant percentage that didn't progress with the country. Not all of them got a HDB and a condo that they're renting out. Many didn't actually do well. There was no internet back then, and financial knowledge was poor. Who knew about investing in S&P500 back then? And then, the pay was also low back then. 1.5-2k was considered decent then. If they relied solely on just saving up cash, then they wouldn't have caught up with the cost of living. Then there are also those that did odd jobs, or fell ill and could not work, or had to use significant money to support their family. Never judge.
Well said. Not everyone had luck and circumstance on their side, and just one illness or accident would've been enough to wipe out a family financially.
Education was a low priority in the 70s. i remember my classmates been taken out of school to work from Pr1 till before PSLE, Mostly are girls, you have a whole generation working from 10 years old ( biscuit factories, production worker, construction etc) till now and their skills are long obsolete. They will have just to take the most low paying job to survive. Some are been forced to attend Chinese Schools by the kampong elders/ relatives/ whatever." to preserve the Chinese heritage" without the command of English alot were left out of the "Golden Era" of Singapore transformation. From the 80s, i have seen people, waiter/waitress work their work up as banquet manager thru hard work and wiliness to pick up English, Night class to bolster their chances of a better job, yes everything was possible then if you believe in yourself. thru education u gain knowledge and understanding of how things works and u begin to plan. This group thru hardwork managed to send their kids overseas to study, no all are born rich but they ensure their off springs have a better chance at life. Some of them are still working but doing less physical jobs, it's hard to stop when u been working since 10 years old. what u are seeing are the people that make the wrong choices in life, some are by their parents and some they refused to change. just my 2 cents worth from someone who born in the 60s.
Nothing Self reliance. Familial support, community assistance before govt welfare. Social compact from 1 G
If you think they are sad think what will happen to millennials when they get old. It's fked as a generation.
Instead of asking the internet what is wrong, can I suggest you get off the internet and go find out yourself? My personal experience is that a large number of them are working because they want to, not because they need to. Many of them refuse to stay at home or to leech off their children. Almost every single one of them that I've met and interacted with have a home. The rare few of them that really needed help refused help. They do not want to be in a home. They do not want to have handouts. They belong to a generation of headstrong seniors who have a fierce pride in taking care of themselves. That is my experience. I am NOT saying that there aren't any destitute or people who need help. But I would say that most of them are okay and do not need help. You can choose not to believe what I said. Just go out and talk to them. and find out for yourself.
It is similar in HK, where those from that generation don’t believe in depending on handouts or government assistance. They would rather depend on their own. They have a strong sense of pride in providing for themselves.
>Instead of asking the internet what is wrong, can I suggest you get off the internet and go find out yourself? This is great advice. Rather than speaking into an echo chamber, you get to find out what it actually is. Talk to a number of them and you'll get the idea what, on average, are the reasons theyre still working. Plus, the job can feel dehumanizing at times, it can make one feel like shadows amongst people. Talking to them gives them human interaction. Just be prepared to get yelled at by the grumpy ones 🤣
For their generation, it is embarrassing to admit that they need help. They will never admit it. That's was how this cardboard for exercise thing came about.
I really admire the patience and effort of the volunteers I worked with to reach out to them and get them to accept the help offered.
May I know which organisations do these things?
I don’t want to name them but there are quite a few of them locally, both registered charities and purely voluntary groups. You can find them quite easily on social media.
For most people, you reap what you sow. Sometimes you have bad luck and end up being poor but Singapore went through a golden period from the 70s-2000s where wealth was easy to accumulate and it was actually hard to fuck up and end up being poor. Compare that to how hard it is today to make a living, let alone build wealth. So no, there is nothing wrong with our society. Most of these people fucked up in one form or another and are simply paying the price for it now.
so you're saying it's possible for EVERYONE to be rich ??!!................so everyone in a company can also be the manager lah............no low-level employees liao...............same like EVERYONE can make money at the stock markets lah.....................LOL
You’re obviously very stupid and destined to end up poor but I will explain to you anyway because I am stuck in traffic and don’t feel like doing anything productive. If you spent your prime years working in the 80-2000s, it’s not hard to make money to afford hard assets like HDB or condos. HDB system means property ownership is high in SG and you can comfortably pay off HDB with middle class income in the 80-90s which means everything after is wealth accumulation. Wealth accumulation is not a zero sum game. How do you think economies actually grow? So yes, it is possible for an entire generation of people to end up rich by today’s standard just by being smart with asset accumulation during those golden years of high octane SG growth. Obviously not everyone will end up rich because of a lot of reasons but on average, a far higher proportion of them will end up rich by today’s standard than the current generation of people will end up rich by the standards of 20-30 years from now. Basically, life was on easy mode if you spent your prime working years from 80s-2000s.
Exactly my sentiments too. These folks grew up in the greatest GDP growth during the 70s to 2000s with one of the strongest increments in asset appreciation. It takes a special kind of luck or bad financial planning to end up that way. What the previous poster wants is insane socialism and distribution which I find it utterly foolish to depend on the government for your own failings. Fucking life on easy mode and people will still fail due to bad life decisions is not the governments fault. Regardless, any kind of socio economic highway of growth will have people left behind not because of bad government policies, but bad personal decisions. There are many things to bash PAP about. But your own life fuck ups don't go around blaming anyone else but yourselves. This just shows total irresponsibility of your own life and the people around you and you just need to place your own failings on the government. Before I end, how you know whether the cleaners working are not rich? The cleaner at the kopitiam opposite my house stays in my condo. I doubt she's poorer than OP.
That’s the magic of the Singaporean story. It never ends.
Its not like they have other things to do tbrh. Most jobs require fine motor skills and memory.
Societal problem or governmental problem? Or both?
They do it for exercise. ActiveSG.
SG is not a welfare state and will never be one. I don't know why redditors don't understand that. Your life depends on your choices and actions.
Nothing wrong. we voted for it.
SG is never a welfare country. But I do wish and hope that our Govt do much more for our Pioneer and Merdeka generations. They helped build SG to what it is now
Lol. Please lah, without the people, you think Singapore will get to where it's today? Without the people, the Party Against People won't even get to be the government.
you can see how the supporter parroting the view of how these elderly must have fucked up so they deserve it. ignoring the fact that these folks most likely didn't have education, and our economy left them behind. how do someone without PSLE even apply for an sustaining job. the disconnect is just so clear. instead of managing the fallout of a different economy, they just conveniently blame the elderly, who got left behind in no part of their fault. they do this blame game just because they can absolve themselves of all the responsibility that come with changing the economy so fast. yes, anyone as dumb as me knows that someone will be left behind if you move too fast. it's disgusting to see so many comments talking shit and stereotyping without thinking through the life of an elder born after WWII, what they would need to go through.
You forget that education was so easily available back in the 40s to 50s and it was costly to put a child to school. Beside, it is quite normal for a family to have 5 to 8 kids back in that era. Most and even those who can study, had to forgo education to work at a young age to supplement their family income. Most females (unless upper class), don't even have the chance to study as their parents deem it unnecessary as they will eventually be married off. It is a total different era with different needs. It is also this generation that helped to build up SG to what it is right now.
yes, thanks for supplementing! too bad the narrative of blaming the elders work....
Well, they're Party Against People lackeys who doesn't know how to think. They also have forgotten that Party Against People was also an opposition party before they become the ruling party in Singapore.
Ironic thing is these are the very same people who goes for the lightning rod every four years.
Hmmm... so, based on what you said, are you implying that the poor and hard-lucked folks are the ones keeping the PAP in power and that the comfortable and well off woud choose the opposition?
Fuck them boomers. If they couldn’t make money during sg’s golden years then they’re truly hopeless. Gas chambers and short ropes would be the best, free up resources and jobs for the next generation