The Philippine Population
There most recent Philippine population statistics indicate that there are around 87 million Filipinos to date.
Contrary to the belief that a large population in a small country is the cause of problems in the developing world, we state from the outset that this is just some sort of miseducation and ignorance among advocates and proponents of population control.
The greatest asset of the Philippine is its people.
Filipinos are known all over the world to be hard workers and easily adaptable to the culture and customs of any of the countries where they are working or living.
The Philippines has a population growth rate of 1.8 percent. This population growth rate is stable and would guarantee that there will be enough people paying taxes to support the older population and contribute to social security.
Contrast this with the rates from the USA (0.92), Taiwan (0.78), Mainland China (0.58), Germany (0.26), Spain (0.09), Italy (0.07) and the most disturbing of all, Japan at 0.005 percent.
The trend in western Europe, in mainland China, the United States, and Japan is that of a dwindling population. If this trend is not reversed, these countries will have no native citizens in 70 years.
There are many governments in these countries that have already realized the dangers in a dwindling population. For example, Germany has already encouraged many families to have more children and that their federal government will give very good incentives to large families.
Japan's population went down in absolute numbers in 2006. The percentage of old people in Japan has already reached 21 percent.
In spite of the fact that Japan is a very rich country, total fiscal revenues will soon reach a point where costs to support the aging population will rise so high, since there would not be a young work force to support social security.
At present, the Japanese corporate arena are competing against each other in the race to recruit employees from other countries, most especially the Philippine.
In mainland China, the population imbalance caused by the high ratio between the male and female sexes, will eventually result in a country with dramatically more males than females.
This imbalance would cause a very low replacement rate in the population if the mainland Chinese males do not look for wives elsewhere.
There are many politicians in Manila who are worried about the growth of the Philippine population. It seems that these politicians have not heard from the lessons of their neighbor, Singapore.
Singapore has learned hard its lesson from the mistake of government sponsored population control. It is worth quoting many stories of the Singapore population story.
Four decades ago, Singapore's prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, setup a population control program, but this was reversed completely 20 years later.
We shall present a summary of the Singapore population policy reversal that has been documented in many references. Here is one summary of two paragraphs quoted from reference.com:
"In the late 1960s, fearing that Singapore's growing population might overburden the developing economy, Lee started a vigorous 'Stop-at-Two' family planning campaign. Couples were urged to undergo sterilization after their second child. Third or fourth children were given lower priorities in education and such families received less economic rebates.
In 1983, Lee sparked the 'Great Marriage Debate' when he encouraged Singapore men to choose women with high education as wives. He was concerned that a large number of graduate women were unmarried.
Some sections of the population, including graduate women, were upset by his views.
Nonetheless, a match-making agency Social Development Unit (SDU) was set up to promote socializing among men and women graduates.
Lee also introduced incentives for graduate mothers to have third and fourth children, in a reversal of the over-successful 'Stop-at-Two' family planning campaign in the 1960s and 1970s.
By the late-1990s, birth rates had become so low that Lee's successor Goh Chok Tong extended these incentives to all married women."
Most theories saying that a great population will mean that there will not be enough food for everyone, or that there will be greater poverty and hunger because of a scarcity of resources when the population competes for it, are theories which do not look at the real source of the problem of poverty or hunger. The Philippine is a developing country and there are places where there is a high density of people living in poverty.
The real cause of poverty and hunger are the corruption in government and the selfish attitude of politicians and businessmen who only know how to work for about their interests.
The poverty and underdevelopment problem, not only in the Philippine but all over the world, is a moral problem and not a population problem.
No matter what population policies are crafted and implemented, if those in positions of authority and influence act only for their own good and not the common good, the problems of poverty and hunger will not be solved.
The fact that the Philippine population growth rate is in a higher level than many developed countries makes it a primary source of skilled intellectual and manual workers. There are many Filipinos who choose to migrate abroad since salaries outside are much higher than at home.
However, this is something that the Philippine government should do something about. The government should focus on creating and implementing policies that will make it attractive for locals to stay and work in the Philippine and for investors to want to setup business in the country.
The Philippine population is not a ballooning problem that will explode into a fiscal and demographic problem in the future. In fact, the Philippine's greatest asset is the knowledge and skill of its population.
The fact that a country has a stable population growth and high birth rates implies that there are more members in a family. This means that there is more interaction among family members and more chances of living, sharing, and experiencing the love and warmth of a family.
There will be difficulties, which are normal, of course, but these difficulties will be overcome since the family is there to help out. If a person experiences the love and care of a family, the more love and care will this person extend to others.
The Philippine population is a population of medium to large families.
This probably explains why Filipinos are known to be very hospitable and caring, since this is what they learn from being with many members of their family and from learning to interact with one another.
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