I was watching news about Singapore raising its budget
to support those who are planning to have babies. They want more babies! The
report said since 1970s Singapore has not been replacing its population. On the
other hand, the Philippines just passed a law encouraging its citizens to limit
birth, because the government said there is just too much Filipinos to be fed.
Singapore is worried that if population plummets it may cause its economies
downturn, affects tax and services. The Philippines on the other hand is afraid
that too much population is costing so much the government’s budget in terms of
services.
Why this contrasting approach? To be sure it is
because of the economy, they look at the health of the economy how it can grow
more and how population is affecting it. So when Singapore wants more babies,
we can say, well, it’s first world country and they can afford it while the
Philippines cannot.
My take on this is that, are the people secondary only
to the economy? So much that the point of view is always looking at the health
of the economy instead of the health of the people? Why is it that when
economic forecast will say that we need new more babies so that 20 to 30 years
from now, someone will still be working, giving taxes thereby not burdening the
government of the services it gives freely for its senior citizens, they
scramble for ways to increase population? Or, in case of the Philippines, why
is it that when economic forecast says that overpopulation hinders economic
growth and we need to curve our population because it will overwhelm our basic
services, we scramble for ways to depopulate? Do human beings but a factor of
the economy? Are human beings just numbers for the economy?
I think we should have a paradigm shift; the human
being should be at the center not the economy. Economy is but a factor to the
well being of humanity not the other way around. Whether the economy is doing
good or not, it is secondary to the consideration of what is good or not to the human person.
The centrality of the human person rather than the
centrality of the economy, for the human person is more valuable than the
economy.
by aats