A Wealthy Society - Time Poverty

A Wealthy Society, Time Poverty*

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Translated by ChatGPT

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story20260523-9093745?utm_source=android-share&utm_medium=app

2026-05-23

Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报

Author: Guo Yingxuan 郭颖轩

The author is a senior multimedia editor at Lianhe Zaobao

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• Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, who leads the task force on reshaping attitudes towards marriage and parenthood, shared at the annual conference of the Singapore Population Association that one major reason many young people are unwilling to marry and have children is that they feel they “do not have enough time.”

• Traditional reasons people rush to travel include: parents are getting old, children’s school holidays have arrived, and life and work pressures are too overwhelming. Every year, travel fairs attract large crowds eager to book travel packages.

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Less than 800 metres from the summit, on a steep downhill trail beneath rock crevices mixed with stones of all sizes, I suddenly stumbled, lost my footing, and lurched downhill out of balance. Just as I was about to crash into a pile of rocks, the guide appeared from nowhere and caught me...

This less-than-five-second “life-and-death” experience happened many years ago during my descent from Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani. Even though I had read extensively about the active volcano and made the necessary preparations before the trip, the trail was far more dangerous than I had imagined. I never thought a single stumble could nearly cost me my life.

Earlier this month, another Indonesian active volcano — Mount Dukono — erupted, resulting in the deaths of three climbers, two of whom were Singaporeans. Reports two days ago stated that the Indonesian guide leading the nine-member Singaporean climbing group had been named a suspect for causing death through negligence.

I do not believe the guide and the climbing team were completely unaware of recent reports about Mount Dukono’s volcanic activity. Perhaps, like me back then, they misjudged how danger might strike; perhaps, like many of us when travelling, they simply did not want to miss a long-planned itinerary.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, people realised that some freedoms cannot be taken for granted. Travel seems to have become something many people are eager to check off their life lists.

Just two days ago, I was discussing travel plans with friends. None of us had gone abroad for more than half a year, and we all blurted out the same sentence: it’s time to travel again.

At some point, travel changed from “something we want to do” into “something we ought to do.” What was originally an optional activity for experiencing movement and exploration has gradually evolved into a “task” that must be completed. Nowadays, not travelling creates a sense that one’s life is falling behind, as though a hidden anxiety over being “unfinished” is quietly fermenting.

Traditional reasons people rush to travel include: parents are getting older, children’s school holidays have arrived, and life and work pressures are too intense. New reasons added at the beginning of this year include: before fuel and prices become even more expensive, and before conflicts in the Middle East worsen further. In the past one or two months, hantavirus infections in South America and Ebola outbreaks in Africa have sounded pandemic alarm bells again, as if urging everyone: if you want to travel abroad, do it quickly!

Travel is the result of society becoming wealthier — people have surplus resources that allow them to plan trips and see the world.

Yet under the influence of various internal and external factors, travel, like life itself, increasingly resembles a series of races. People are deeply afraid of falling behind, even treating missed opportunities as personal failures. This is similar to what German sociologist Hartmut Rosa described in his concept of “social acceleration”: although modern society possesses more advanced technology, richer changes, and more diverse lifestyle choices, people increasingly feel they do not have enough time.

A wealthy society, time poverty.

This anxiety over incompleteness is reflected not only in travel plans, but also in the milestones of modern life — when to find a job, at what age to marry, when to have children, when to switch jobs, when to travel around the world...

Just this week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, who leads the task force on reshaping attitudes towards marriage and parenthood, shared at the annual conference of the Singapore Population Association that one major reason many young people are unwilling to marry and have children is that they feel they “do not have enough time.”

Living within such an environment, modern people cannot easily change this psychological state overnight. Perhaps what people need more is not to rush toward the next trip, nor to pile on more life responsibilities, but to stop and reflect on why they always feel they do not have enough time.

I did not stop seeking adventure because of that mountaineering accident; I simply became more mindful of the path beneath my feet.

Mountaineering, travel, and life can never avoid the unknown. What truly matters is not how fast or how far we go, but knowing clearly, within our limited time, why we set out in the first place.

(The author is a senior multimedia editor at Lianhe Zaobao.)