Population Management - Are we up to it?

This article, which appeared in the 1 December issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports on yet another paper published by professors from the UP School of Economics
making a stand on our present economic situation, this time entitled
“Population and Poverty: The Real Score”. Recall that a few months
back, they published ” The deepening crisis: the real score on deficits and the public debt” (click here to download a PDF copy),
a paper warning on an impending fiscal crisis if Government does not
implement concrete–and drastic–measures to curb a possible debt
default, which would lead to credit downgrade/s and consequently
further make it difficult for the government to finance its deficits
(due to higher cost of borrowing). Recall further that I likewise made a blog post commenting on their publication on fiscal crisis.
Now they’re raising another issue. I hope the Administration would
listen to the distinguished UPSE professors, similar to how Malacanang
seemed to have listened and reacted when the paper on the looming
fiscal crisis was published.

Status report: as
of writing, the Executive had facilitated/fast-tracked the endorsement
to Congress of eight revenue-generating measures, four of which had
been passed, albeit with revisions. The Executive had likewise
fast-tracked various “reorganization,” “rationalization,”
“streamlining,” “austerity”–or whatever you may call it–programs in
order to arrive at a leaner bureaucracy.

(more…)