POVERTY IN SINGAPORE

Poverty around the whole world has been increasing through the past few years due to the increase in the standard of living. Many people have fell below the poverty line and have been suffering in the society. Most of which are the elderly people who are either too weak to work or doesn't have the requirements to apply for a job.

In Singapore , there's no minimum wage, thus many people are not earning enough to make ends meet and there is also and increasing number of jobless people. From the chart above, we can see that about 460,000 people are living below the poverty line. The wealthy people gets wealthier and wealthier while the poor people gets poorer and poorer.

From the graph above, we can see that the populace living in poverty has been increasing tremendously for the past 12 years. Even with Singapore's increasing GDP (Gross Domestic Product), there are still many Singaporeans not having a decent income or even a job.

The populace that has been affected the most are the ageing and elderly people living in Singapore. Some don't have children to take care of them and some are most probably homeless. There are many cases of which I've seen old people sleeping on the benches in parks or the ledges of void decks or even on the cold hard ground. It's a sight that I will never forget. Every time I've seen people selling tissue papers at hawker centers and food courts, I will undoubtly buy from them even if I have one myself. That single dollar when compiled together with other peoples "contributions" it could really make a huge difference for the poor and less fortunate people. The heart ache I receive every time I see these old people (some disabled) really touches me as they showed me their will to live on . So to anyone that is reading this post, why not lend a helping hand to the less fortunate people whenever you can?

wenping