More Valuable Than The Economy

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