Dear Editor.

Regarding the lifestyle of young couples, they choose to enjoy their life as their top priority. They would choose to keep a pet as their family member rather than have their own children at home. In this article, I would like to discuss the reasons for this behavior and provide possible measures to encourage them to consider having their own babies in order to increase the birth rate of Hong Kong.

One of the reasons of keeping a pet as their companion is that these young couples are affected by the western ideology. Individualism promotes the ideas of pursuing personal achievements and carefree lifestyle. This kind of mindset motivates the couples to enjoy their sweet time with their partners As a result, they would try to keep a pet rather than have their own babies as their family member.

Another obvious reason is that there is high cost of living in Hong Kong. The skyrocketing property price, increasing transportation cost and low salary level of families make them hesitate to have their own babies. Moreover, it is a fact that raising a child is costly, which prevents the couples from being parents. It is because they need to prepare a lot for the growth of their children, such as the education expenditure, medical and living cost. With the financial burden on their shoulders, they need to think twice before having their babies.

In order to motivate Hong Kong parents to give birth to more babies, there are some measures can be taken by the government as the steady birth rate is important for the growth of a society. First, the government needs to have a holistic planning for the population growth. Sufficient supply of various types of housing, long-term education planning and multiple economic development can create a more harmonious society, which can motivate parents to give birth to more babies.

Second, the government needs to promote more about the needs of having enough manpower to support the development of our society. Parents’ awareness of having their babies should be cultivated by education and advertisements on different kinds of media. With these actions, it is hoped that parents can be encouraged to have more babies of their own.

To conclude, a stable population growth is important for the development of a society. It is hoped that young couples and parents are encouraged to have more babies to maintain the adequate labor force to support the growth of Hong Kong.

Yours faithfully,
Cai Linzhe
HHCKLA Buddhist Ching Kok Secondary School