Is NS sustainable in the near-future?
Let me preface this by saying this is purely anecdotal and it doesn’t account for stats or industry wide knowledge that professionals might have.
Realised a lot of differences from the past
I’m currently serving around my 5th/6th cycle of reservist, and after not having been called back for 2 years due to deferment, I realised a stark change in how things run in my unit.
Manpower seems tighter than ever – the new NSF intake into the unit is a 1/4 of what it was during my time, and all the young regulars seem to be resigning due to mismanagement and inability to cope with the manpower shortage – nearly all the young regulars I patrolled with during my time as an NSF aren’t there anymore.
And this is still the generation with an ‘okay’ birthrate, in 10 years time, will there still be manpower, both in NSF and regulars in order to keep things running?
Here are what netizens think
- I do agree raising kids now is not cheap. But I also want to highlight that there was a time when Singaporeans were poorer and yet we have more kids.
So clearly kids being expensive can only stretch so far as an argument. So what changed?
I don’t know. But I suspect it’s a combination of culture, lifestyle, cost of living and personal aspirations. - NS for the ladies
- I mean they could do something very drastic like conscription for females maybe like a lottery system like Thailand based on some degree of luck to make up the shortfall and have them do medical/admin roles