Dangers of 'please-all economics' real, S'pore must make hard choices: PM Lee

SINGAPORE - Singapore must acknowledge and address serious trade-offs facing the country as it moves to improve people's welfare while ensuring jobs and economic opportunities for the future, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a Facebook post on Monday that was prompted by an article warning of the perils of "please-all economics".

Get the full story from The Straits Times.

Here is PM Lee's Facebook post:

Came across this thoughtful piece by Andy Mukherjee over the weekend.

It explains clearly the issues and trade-offs Singapore faces in building our ideal society, while ensuring that Singaporeans have jobs and economic opportunities to build better lives and a brighter future.

As the article points out, we do enjoy important advantages compared to other countries, but it will still not be easy.

There are serious trade-offs, which we must be willing to acknowledge and address.

If we just pretend that everything can be better, and no hard choices are necessary, we will get into trouble. Mukherjee calls this "please-all economics", and expresses confidence that Singaporeans are too pragmatic to fall for it.

We must make sure that he is right. - LHL