July 13, 04:09 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 National University of Singapore's Associate Professor Daniel Goh, who is a sociologist, a persistently political citizen and a Workers' Party member, has come out to explain via his sociological understanding, Minister Tan Chuan-Jin's Facebook post about cardboard collectors that came out over the weekend.
In a Facebook post, Prof Goh pointed out -- while making some assumptions -- that the team from Youth Corps Singapopre (YCS) that collected the data might have "committed the basic error sociologists would warn our students against in social research", which is to take answers at face value -- and interpretation of data is key:
People give meanings to their actions. These meanings are cultural and laden with values. So even if the actions were primarily driven by economic circumstances, due to poverty for example, people would give cultural meaning to their actions beyond instrumental reasons of survival or profit.
For the cardboard-collecting seniors, it is apparent from TCJ's post that they value dignity. This is very much in tune with our Singaporean culture, which treats begging as humiliating and values independence and hard work. Few Singaporeans would be okay with seeing themselves as poor. So when they come face to face with the young people taking a strange sympathetic interest in them, what more would they say if they were to keep their sense of dignity?
TCJ'>
Posted by Daniel PS Goh on Sunday, July 12, 2015
Koh Cheng Jun, a student who is part of Youth Corps Singapore (YCS), has also spoken out on the issue to shed some light as to what really went down.
Contrary to the belief that his team ran along with whatever responses the cardboard collectors provided, the preliminary stage of meeting and talking to the respondents took two months:
We are group of students from different JCs, polytechnics and universities, brought together by Youth Corps Singapore (YCS), a movement that supports youths keen to serve the community. Apart from our team, there were also other teams formed during the induction programme. Under the programme, wehad a list of different projects to choose from; we eventually settled on cardboard collection due to its enduring presence in our society – “Why are there still cardboard collectors in our first world country? Who are these people who are slogging away under inclement weather in our neighbourhoods?”
[...]
The team talked to close to 45 cardboard collectors over a 2-month period, including many young foreigners in the trade. We eventually narrowed our interview pool to 13 collectors, on the criteria that they are Singaporeans/PRs aged 55 and above, as suggested by SSO to be the most vulnerable group. This would be the first study of its kind. The questions would focus on health, financial status, social and family support of the collectors.
These are our main findings:
1. Most cardboard collectors do it for the money (no doubts about it).
2. Minority does it for otherreasons – form of leisure/exercise, recycling (small but exists).
3. Most hold another job (in orderto earn enough/have other sources of income security, depending on how you seeit).
4. Most are financially able tosupport themselves/deny the need for assistance (again, depending on how you see it).
5. Most are supported/offeredsupport by their families, including a few who do not want their families to know,as they do not approve.
6. Cardboard collectors are facing competition from younger foreigners.