Has the Government Done Enough for the Underprivileged

321 Words2 Pages
There has been an issue of the government not doing enough for the underprivileged in Singapore. The underprivileged may refer to the elderly, people with chronic ailments, those with lesser income and families who have children with special needs. There are many causes of why Singaporeans feel that the government has not done enough for the underprivileged. Firstly, the underprivileged have the mindset that the government is not doing their part in helping them. For example, many with chronic ailments, especially the elderly, did not do what is told by the doctors. They did not take medication at the proper time because they did not see how the medication helps to improve their condition and hence their condition worsens, resulting in more money spent on regular checkups. They think that the government is not doing enough because their condition worsened and they had to spend more money. Secondly, there has been a widening in the income gap recently. For example, Singapore has a strong economic growth in 2012. Economists say the group most likely to benefit is the high income earners. As a result of the very strong growth, the top 20% of income earners will generally ride on the growth and benefit from it for more than the lower 20%. Those who earn lesser income will not have enough money for daily life and thus feel that the government is not doing enough to improve their cost of living. Thirdly, it is the ageing problem in Singapore. In 1997, there is an estimated 217,400 elderly persons aged 65 and above forming 7% of the population but the number is increasing and expected to hit 798,700 in 2013, forming 18.4% of the population. This suggests that the government may be focusing too much on improving the ageing problem in Singapore (the elderly) which leads to a shrinking workforce and so may have overlooked the other less

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