The goal is not to postpone development indefinitely, but to prevent today's choices from unnecessarily closing off tomorrow's possibilities.

While its core objective is to ensure affordable housing, public housing also fulfils another equally important policy objective of encouraging family formation.

Singapore is rethinking how family policy can better support people in managing work and family life. At the National Day Rally on 23 August, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong outlined the first set of measures from the Marriage and Parenthood Reset workgroup, including more childcare leave, sustained financial support and more affordable preschool. He described the goal as a “fundamental shift” in how families are supported and began with “something every parent wishes they had more of: time.” If Singapore wants to understand and ultimately lighten that load, it needs to measure that resource more systematically. A regular, nationally representative time-use survey would provide an important evidence base for designing and evaluating family, care and work-life policies across the life course.

Singapore should address Washington’s forced-labour concern directly, but a modest tariff reduction would not by itself justify a wider economic-security agreement.