“The most unprepossessing candidate for the Holy Grail of prosperity is seven inches of latex: a condom,” Easterly, a former World Bank official, wrote in his 2002 book “The Elusive Quest for Growth.” <\/p>\n
The Philippine population will increase at a rate of 200 babies each hour this year, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board. Romulo Virola, the board’s secretary-general, offers three reasons for such rapid growth: limited access to modern family planning methods; children’s role in family businesses; and guidance from the church. <\/p>\n
One could argue the Philippines may be set for a demographic dividend. According to Bloomberg data, 35 percent of Filipinos are younger than 15. Contrast that with aging Japan, where just 14 percent are in that age group. Demographically, the Philippines would have more in common with India than China. <\/p>\n
Swelling ranks of young workers are only a plus when an economy utilizes them. While industries such as outsourcing, tourism and mining may provide more jobs, the Philippines should be doing more to create opportunities. Sadly, its strategy seems to be shipping an ever-growing number of workers overseas. <\/p>\n
It’s an unsustainable policy. Exporting so many workers will at some point hurt the economy. It also takes pressure off the government to do its job and clean up its act. <\/p>\n
Again, the point of this column isn’t to denigrate religious beliefs. It’s that 7.3 percent growth in 2007 means little if a nation’s ever-expanding masses aren’t feeling it. Greater access to modern family-planning methods, including 7 inches (17.8 centimeters) of latex, would help stretch the benefits of economic growth. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You can read more at the link. <\/p>\n
I’m sure some will consider his arguments, um, a stretch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A commentator over at Bloomberg is suggesting that the real problem facing the poor of the Philippines is that they’re having too many babies. And he blames the Church. So, of course, he has a latex solution: “The most unprepossessing candidate for the Holy Grail of prosperity is seven inches of latex: a condom,” Easterly,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\n
Condom nation - and condemnation - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/02\/condom-nation-and-condemnation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Condom nation - and condemnation - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A commentator over at Bloomberg is suggesting that the real problem facing the poor of the Philippines is that they’re having too many babies. And he blames the Church. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}