It is an inherent biological instinct for parents not only to care and provide for their children but expect the lives of their children to improve over theirs. Our generation, the baby boomers have fulfilled such expectations of our parents in terms of being better educated, enjoying much more material comfort and healthcare and being more aware of the world at large. It is only natural for us to expect that our children should enjoy yet a higher level of these and it disturbs us when we realise they may instead suffer a heavy set back as a result of our past excesses.
Leaving aside the huge deficit and the worn out infrastructure in far away US, we the baby boomers in this part of the world have our share in contributing to the aftermath of our excesses. We benefited from almost free education, rode on the economic growth and property boom in a relatively stress free and less competitive environment; and by sheer numbers redirected the use of limited natural resources to satisfy our needs. We fuel the rising housing prices and have insatiable demand for consumer goods. Now our children have to work all their lives to serve the house mortgage, suffer the consequence of global warming and will feel the impact of heavier government spending on elderly healthcare at the expense of say education. As a result of a growing income divide our next generation may also experience greater social immobility.
The next generation is sometimes described as a " generation screwed". Parents all the world over worry for their children's future and well being. We worry about our children’s finances, relationship issues and problems in balancing work and family. Back home, Singapore is also facing a severe fertility crisis which if uncorrected will in the words of LKY see the country "fold up". The competitve environment and heavy job demands are named as contributing factors. Will our children be the last mohicans with no one to take care of them when they turn old after slogging a lifetime to survive? This is inconceivable in the minds of us baby boomers who ironically have worked hard to forge a better future for our children. Our predominant focus on economic growth and competitiveness seems now to have backfired leaving behind a world so messed up that our children see little meaning to bring yet another generation to endure. So our dreams like that of the predecessor of every generation in wishing a better life for their children waver and stand the risk of being crushed.
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