Singapore Proposal to increase the birth rate in Singapore
I propose the following steps to increase the birth rate in Singapore:

a) Pay to the mother $1,100 per month for each child (up to a maximum of 3 per mother) until the child reaches 6 yo.

b) This will encourage the mother to leave the workforce and spend up to 6 years to raise each child. After the 6 years, the mother can return to the workforce.

c) The mother allowance of $3,000 for 3 children will be 70% of the medium wage in Singapore. 

What is the cost to the nation?
a) 40,000 babies X 6 years X $1,100 X 12 = $3.1 billion a year. 

Singapore now provide a baby bonus for each child and a subsidy for child care. I do not know the cost of the existing schemes. The net increase will be a lower amount (say $2.5 billion).

This must be compared against the money spent each year for:

Defense - $16.6 billion
Education - 13.6 billion
Health - $19.3 billion
Transport - $10.9 billion. 
All government expenditure: $109 billion. 

An additional $2.5 billion to provide the allowance to mothers to boost the birth rate, represents an increase of only 2.3% to the total budget. 

It may be possible to reduce the expenditure in some of the existing budget and allocate it to the mother's allowance.

The more educated women may prefer to have a career and not raise children. However, the less educated women may find this to be an attractive option. The mother's allowance will allow them to raise children without causing a strain on the family budget. 

Tan Kin Lian
 

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