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I still feel that ...
If the young want to have a future, look beyond the national boundaries. It is still an individual's choice.
Singapore
- despite the good things Sam mentioned, has no backup plans for residents who fall off the work treadmill, there is also a bad retirement scheme and an even worst health system (you can die but you cannot fall sick)
- it is a good place to earn money, but NS takes up the best time of the youth and reservist is a bother. Up to 30yo are the critical phase for a high achiever.
Australia
- The system here is such that you can basically do anything you want. If you are smart, good for you. If you are hardworking, you cannot go hungry.
- The country takes care of its weakest, at the expense of the large middle class.
- The retirement scheme is highly rated, and as long as the government open the immigration to address the demographic issues, it is still possible to get a decent retirement here.
- The health system has a safety net. Only when a person need to go for a bypass, then that poor bloke will realise how the significant cost of healthcare in Singapore can burn up the his retirement fund. When I checked on this workmate of mine, he told me that his Medicare + private health fund took care of everything. He use this term, no out-of-pocket expenses!! No gap payment.
- There is better work-leisure balance and a much better variety of REAL leisure to pursue. Life is not about making money all the time, and using that money to go shopping to de-stress. It is a real shocker that Singaporeans and Hongkongers will take leave from work to work from home!!! Is this a good quality of life? Is this how I want to live my life. No way!!
While the Gen Y aussies will need a parent's help to get a foothold into aussie property market, but they are facing better work opportunities when the Babyboomers retire. (Gen X aussies will curse because they live in the shadow of the Babyboomers who took the top jobs.)
I still feel that the best years for Australia are still ahead. There are the tradtitional resistance to change and bumps along the way. There has to be, we have 20 Good Years and a recession is overdue. How these 20 Good Years came about is the bold reform to the Banana republic horrors. I still remember that at that time, Malaysians migrants pack up their bags and return to help Mahatair achieve his Malaysia Boleh Vision 2020.
What happened subsequently is a testimony to the Aussies who re-invent the country that Lee Kuan Yew called, the White Trash of Asia.
With the shadow of the causes of the global financial tsunami still affecting world's growth and the coming Lost decade, Australia may be about to enter its most economically challenging time, but IMF and the economists seems to think that we will do well. Is Australia luckier than the rest of the West.
I heard that retrenchment has already started in Singapore.
My own experience tells me to apply for a PR visa overseas, so that if things really get tough back home, I can seek out opportunities elsewhere.
I am seeing more young Koreans, Indians, Irish .. etc in town.
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UK young travellers heading to Australia to escape British economic gloom
Written by Ozgur Tore
SUNDAY, 06 NOVEMBER 2011 11:48
In 2005-06 the number of Australian working holiday visas granted to young people from the UK was 28,281. In 2009–10 this figure stood at 37,056.
Young British people apply for and are granted more working holiday visas for Australia than citizens of any other country.
So why do so many Brits want to head out to Oz on a working holiday visa? Well, Great Britain comes a measly 28th place in the UN’s Human Development Index, while Australia is ranked second. The countries on this list are indexed according to quality of life factors including life expectancy, education and standard of living. The quality of life in Australia is definitely perceived by young people to be attractive.
Add to this the fact that the youth unemployment rate in the UK is currently the highest on record, with almost one million young people aged 16 - 24 out of work. That’s nearly 20% youth unemployment. In Australia youth unemployment stands at 11.5%, with a low overall unemployment rate of just over 5%. So in Australia, as a young person you are more likely to find work, albeit temporary work if you have a working holiday visa. Then there is the weather, the lack of language barrier, and the feeling that Australia is more welcoming to young people than the UK. The Australian working holiday visa programme currently welcomes applicants from 19 different countries. The British version offers working holiday visas to young people from just 5 countries, one of which is Monaco.
Rebecca Jordan of work and travel gap year specialist website http://www.gapwork.com believes that "…as austerity measures in the UK bite, and a double dip recession looms, more and more young British people will be heading to countries like Australia and New Zealand for a year to work, travel and get work experience. We are definitely seeing an increase in enquiries from young people who just can’t find work or even decent work experience at home at the moment. You don't have to be a student or on a gap year to get a working holiday visa, you just have to be aged between 18-30, have enough cash behind you to cover your flights and a few months living expenses, and want to bail out of Britain!"
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