Unlike some countries where political parties are clearly aligned with specific groups in the society, the Singapore Government looks after the needs of the people as well as their aspirations, assured Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Sunday. The issue of aspirations came into sharp focus after an announcement last Monday on the new car loan restrictions. Members of Parliament whom TODAY spoke to felt it was time to temper a “hire-purchase culture”. [SMU Assistant Professor of Law and] NMP Eugene Tan said that aspirations have to be “right-sized” and “contextualised”. Assistant Professor Tan noted that in a mature economy, people have “aspirational needs”, such as cars and “post-material aspirations” such as better work-life balance or freedom of speech. “The Government has to right-size these aspirations, while we need to contextualise our aspirations. Constraints are something that most people forget. In built-up cities like London and New York, most people do not own a car,” he said.