What Are We Working So Hard For?
A comedian moved to Australia for his daughter. I can't stop thinking about why.
"A fair shot at life."
That phrase really stuck with me. I found myself rewatching a recent reel by Dr Jason Leong, a Malaysian comedian who recently moved to Australia with his family. I'd heard about his plans earlier in a podcast where a comedian friend mentioned Jason was debating between Singapore and Australia. Australia won out. Better culture, less pressure-cooker environment for his daughter, and lower cost of living overall.
All of it came together for one reason: so his daughter could have a fair shot at life.
Granted, he is speaking from a Malaysian POV where the Malay-first policy may disadvantage the Chinese. But what he said still lingers deeply in me.
I don't need to belabour the point, but the Singapore Dream narrative hasn't aged well. The 5Cs (Cash, Car, Condo, Credit Card, Country Club) seemed entirely achievable when I was growing up. The formula was simple: study hard, get a degree, land a job at an MNC, and you'd make it to the middle class. It wasn't just propaganda. It actually worked.
The costs were within reach, too. Check what an ICON condo in Tanjong Pagar sold for in 2000. Sure, you could argue that money worked differently back then, but I've also heard stories from ex-colleagues in the stockbroking industry about 12-month bonuses being the norm. That could easily cover half an HDB flat. One bonus. Half a flat. Try telling that to a millennial today and watch them weep into their avocado toast.
There was an implicit social contract: work hard, play by the rules, and you'll get your piece of the pie. For a generation of Singaporeans, that promise was kept.
The Cracks Are Showing
Right now, you see friction everywhere. Left, right, centre.
Let's start with education. Loiter outside any tuition centre and you'll notice many parents aren't local. They brought their families here hoping for a better future, and they're investing heavily in their kids. Learning Lab can costs $1,000 per month per subject, and some kids do multiple subjects to prep for PSLE.
Let me repeat that. One thousand dollars. Per month. Per subject. That's more than some people's car instalments. For a 12-year-old's math tuition.
For parents who can't afford those supplements, their kids naturally fall behind. And those spots, whether in schools or later in life, naturally go to those who performed better. It's an arms race where the entry fee is your child's childhood and your retirement savings.
And here's the kicker: I hear about Asian migrants doing the same thing in Australia, and it's genuinely facepalm-inducing. Like, guys, you literally moved countries to escape this. Why are you recreating it? If you want a pressure-cooker environment, Singapore will gladly welcome you back. We've got the infrastructure down to a science.
Then there's housing. My first HDB flat in Tampines, a 5-room, cost me $250,000. That same flat now? Easily $800,000. Even getting a BTO takes half a lifetime. By the time you finish paying it off, you barely have anything left to retire on unless you cash out and downgrade. Which, if you think about it, means you spent your entire working life paying for a house you'll eventually have to leave anyway. Fantastic investment strategy.
The math just doesn't work anymore. A fresh graduate today, even from a decent university with a decent job, is looking at decades of debt for a home that's smaller than what their parents had. We're not even talking about condos anymore. Just basic HDB flats.
And speaking of smaller: houses are shrinking. Despite official claims that newer flats are "bigger," anyone who's actually viewed them knows the truth. I've seen shoe boxes with better proportions. What bought you genuine space and breathing room in 2000 gets you a layout where you can touch three walls simultaneously today. Add in longer work hours, longer commutes, and the constant grind just to maintain the same standard of living our parents had.
It's the treadmill effect: running faster just to stay in place. Except the treadmill is also getting more expensive, and the gym keeps shrinking.
What Does "Fair" Even Mean?
So what does Jason mean when he talks about giving his daughter "a fair shot at life"?
I think it's about the gap between effort and outcome. It's not that Singaporeans don't work hard. We're famous for it. We're so good at working hard that we've turned burnout into a competitive sport. It's that the effort required to achieve what used to be a normal middle-class life has become borderline superhuman.
You're paying more for less space while your kids are competing in a high-stakes academic Olympics (that somehow starts at age 7), and you're left wondering: what exactly are we working so hard for? The privilege of doing it all over again?
Fair doesn't mean everyone gets the same outcome. But it should mean that hard work and playing by the rules get you somewhere reasonable. That the game isn't rigged from the start. That your kids can have a childhood instead of a resume-building exercise complete with enrichment activities, leadership camps, and a LinkedIn profile before they hit puberty.
Australia isn't perfect. No place is. But I imagine for Jason, it represents something fundamental: the possibility of a life where success doesn't require sacrificing everything else. Where his daughter can be a kid. Where a decent job means a decent life, not just survival with aspirations.
The Question I Can't Shake
Singapore has given me opportunities I'm grateful for. The efficiency, the safety, the infrastructure. These aren't small things. But when I look at the trajectory we're on, I wonder if the next generation will say the same thing. Or if they'll look back and ask: why did you stay when the writing was on the wall? And also, why is this wall so expensive?
Jason made his choice. He looked at the options, weighed what mattered to him, and decided that Australia offered his daughter something Malaysia couldn't, or wouldn't, provide anymore.
I don't know what my choice will be. But his words keep echoing: "a fair shot at life."
That's not asking for much. It's asking for what we were promised. What our parents had. A life where hard work pays off in ways that matter, where your kids can thrive without being crushed by the system, where the dream isn't just survival.
Maybe that's still possible here. Maybe it's not. But the fact that so many people (smart, successful, integrated people) are asking the question at all tells you something has shifted.
The Singapore Dream isn't dead. But it's certainly on life support.
And more people than ever are wondering if it's worth waiting around to see if it recovers.
Adrian Tan
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