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Singapore govt dating app uses Gale-Shapley stable marriage algorithm

466 points · 499 comments · rzk

  1. janalsncm · · focus · HN ↗
    In principle this can be a lot better than regular dating apps.

    Tinder doesn’t know if they were successful or not. They just know you stopped opening the app. In fact they are incentivized not to make matches that lead to marriage, because then you will stop paying.

    The government knows whether you got married and stayed married, and given the social cost of divorce, they are pretty incentivized to keep people married.

    1. derangedHorse · · focus · HN ↗
      > given the social cost of divorce

      I think they're more concerned about their fertility rate and labor force. A 0.87 total fertility rate for 2025 [1] is pretty bad.

      [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.abc.net.au&#x2F;news&#x2F;2026-03-12&#x2F;singapore-low-fertility-rate-existential-challenge&#x2F;106397470" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.abc.net.au&#x2F;news&#x2F;2026-03-12&#x2F;singapore-low-fertili...

      1. yutter4 · · focus · HN ↗
        Western governments don&#x27;t seem at all concerned about this, unfortunately. They no longer represent the people, they represent the economy. And the economy is far more interested in importing millions of unskilled adult migrants from developing countries who are immediately eligible for debt, rent, mortgages, and low-paying jobs to prop up the GDP, rather than a crying baby that will leech on public services for 18 years beforehand. Culture, stability, safety, happiness, long-term prosperity and survival be damned.
        1. roncesvalles · · focus · HN ↗
          &gt;importing millions of unskilled adult migrants

          There is no Western country importing unskilled immigrants.

          The &quot;yield&quot; from crying babies is not 100%. Some will die before their productive years, some will succumb to disabilities, addictions, delinquency, or simply choose not to study and work.

          Importing an immigrant cuts away all that &quot;shrinkage&quot;, at zero cost to the receiving country (their country of birth bore that cost). It&#x27;s such a good deal it&#x27;s a no brainer, basically a tree that grows money. Not to mention it&#x27;s immediate. Crying babies have a 18-22 year lag time.

          Also, government incentives to have children usually stimulates immigrants and poor people anyway, if your argument is purely ethnoracial. You may as well take the 23-year-old Indian or Algerian dude. There is very little the government can do to make a white couple in Connecticut have babies.

          1. yutter4 · · focus · HN ↗
            &gt;There is no Western country importing unskilled immigrants.

            False. We have unknown numbers of illegal immigrants being ushered in by governments every day; rampant fraud by foreigners, especially students, working in unskilled positions for cash or using a friend&#x27;s ID; and we have many &quot;skilled&quot; migrants with rubbish qualifications that reveal themselves to be a sham the moment they go to work (potentially at great cost or risk to others). Don&#x27;t tell me we aren&#x27;t importing unskilled foreigners when almost every Uber and delivery driver I&#x27;ve had for the last 15 years has been an Indian.

            Absolutely no actual Westerner is making the arguments that you have, by the way. You have revealed yourself as a foreigner trying to subvert our way of life. We don&#x27;t care about a baby&#x27;s &quot;lag time&quot;, we love our children and couldn&#x27;t care less if economic metrics don&#x27;t. We certainly don&#x27;t believe we &quot;may as well&quot; take in millions of Indians or Algerians to meet arbitrary economic goals rather than maintaining a harmonious and prosperous homeland for our White children. You cannot put a price on that.

            1. AnnikaL · · focus · HN ↗
              University students are presumably not &quot;unskilled&quot; --- they&#x27;re learning some skills at university, and probably got admitted on the basis of some skills! Maybe the jobs they are working are unskilled, but that&#x27;s not what we were talking about.

              Also, talking about &quot;maintaining a homeland for white children&quot; is eerily reminiscent of the white supremacist &#x27;fourteen words&#x27; slogan: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fourteen_Words" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fourteen_Words

              1. yutter4 · · focus · HN ↗
                There is nothing eerie about people wanting the best for their children. Fuck you and fuck off.

                Read those fourteen words. What sick freak would not want that? To object to that is to be openly racist and genocidal towards White people. It is the most natural, healthy sentiment a person can express, especially if White himself.

                1. AnnikaL · · focus · HN ↗
                  I think it is good for people to want the best for their children. It doesn&#x27;t follow that one should care more about some children who aren&#x27;t related to you than about other unrelated children, because of their skin color.
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