Official records of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) have revealed that three babies are born every minute in the country. About 4,775 Filipino babies are born every day, thus, making the Philippines as having one of the highest birth rates at 2.36 percent in the world.
Out of 100 Filipino babies, 29 would die before their first birthdate. Out of 10 babies, 4 are born illegitimate, meaning, these babies are born out of wedlock. This further means that 1,910 out of wedlock babies are born every day. The moral concept about single motherhood has truly changed in time.
As of the latest census, the Philippine population stands at more than 100.9 million, and still growing. By the year 2045, the Philippine population is projected to increase to 142 million, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In his Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus theorizes that human populations grow exponentially (i.e., doubling with each cycle), while food production grows at an arithmetic rate. To Malthus, while food output was likely to increase in a series of 25-year intervals in the arithmetic progression 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and so on, population was capable of increasing in the geometric progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and so forth.
The scenario of arithmetic food growth with simultaneous geometric human population growth predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on. Obviously to balance population growth and food supplies and to avoid such a catastrophe, Malthus urged controls on population growth.
China (at .53 percent population growth) and Singapore (at 1.66 percent) are two countries in Asia that heed Malthus. China’s current population stands at 1.375 billion; Singapore at 5.696 million. China’s attempt to control its population is contained in its one-child policy in urban areas; Singapore in the state policy to stop at two children. China and Singapore have each achieved unprecedented economic growth. Not because of birth control as cautioned by Malthus, but because of the crafty use of its human resources.
Thornton (2001) conducted a research on the long-run relationship between population growth and economic development in seven Latin American countries, namely, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. His findings supported the conclusion reached by Dawson and Tiffin (1998), that is, “A long-run relation between population and real per capita GDP does not appear to exist; hence, population growth neither causes growth of per capita GDP nor is caused by it.”
A prominent economist once observed that human resources are the vital ingredients in economic growth. Increase in population becomes negative when it delays the economic development of a country and positive when the growth in population complements the economic development of the nation.
In total, if the human resources of a country are engaged in productive activities, there would be appreciable boom in economy. Reversely, if human resources of the nation are into drugs, gambling, and other non-productive endeavours, expect the economy to be stagnant. This has been proven in China and in Indonesia whose populations enjoy a higher standard of living than those from the Philippines. Yet, those two countries have more population than the Philippines.
The more a country produces gainful goods and services, the more it creates wealth which would logically be given down to ordinary citizens.
The previous administration of the country generally focused, rightly or wrongly, at drugs and gambling, which are considerably non-productive activities that do not generate economic values. Accordingly, there are more than three million drug addicts in the country, not counting the gamblers, for which the previous administration vowed to exterminate, which it did, as promised.
With that articulated, think of the amount of goods and services these people would have produced as an alternative. | NWI
