Enterprising charities can contribute more to society

THE inconvenient truth about Singapore is that despite steady economic and population growth, our demographic is rapidly ageing, productivity gains are hard to achieve and technology is reducing the need for labour in certain industries.

Against such a backdrop, the challenge that lies ahead for our government is how to address both the economic and social issues that could arise from growing inequalities in wealth, income and even opportunity.

Over the coming years, the government may find itself needing to step in to implicitly guarantee some level of employment and income so as to maintain economic and social stability while Singapore transitions towards a new economic model. However, simply expanding the public sector to soak up excess labour is not just undesirable but unsustainable.