After many years of serving in MINDEF and finally retiring this year, I do feel sorry for local males who have to delay two years of lives and lose that competitive edge against skilled foreigners. My last pay drawn is $200k per year, so those two years are worth potentially $400k financially to some of them. Imagine being a foreigner working in Singapore and having an additional $400k by virtue of your birthplace lottery. During my time in MINDEF policy dept, I have tried to push for additional income taxes for foreigners to level the playing field but was brushed off for making Singapore "uncompetitive".

That's not to say I disagree with compulsory NS, because without male citizens to provide those financial sacrifice those of us in MINDEF would be without a stable civil service career, so let us give a moment of appreciation to them.