Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. VI, No. 14      May 14-20, 2006      Quezon City, Philippines

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ANALYSIS
The Fallacy of the Population Theory

Malthus was wrong for theorizing that hunger would be caused by population growth.  It is being caused by social inequities and injustice. It is also not true that the Arroyo government is clueless as to why poverty and hunger are getting worse, its policies and programs are making it worse. 

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

Thomas Robert Malthus, an economist, sociologist, and member of the clergy, published his work, An Essay on the Principles of Population in 1798.  In his essay, he put forward the theory that the major reason for the extreme poverty of people was that the world’s population was growing faster than the food supply.  He said that poverty and hunger could not be avoided because population increases at a geometric rate while food supplies increase at an arithmetical rate.  His theory is embraced by economists even today, thus, one important measure of actual and potential economic progress is the decreasing rate of growth of the population.

If Malthus’ theory was true and the projections of the National Statistical Coordination Board are accurate then there really is cause for optimism. In a news item published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer May 10, the government announced that, “POPULATION growth in the Philippines, the world's 12th most populous state, has slowed to 1.95 percent annually since last year, compared to 2.1 percent in the previous five years.” The National Statistical Coordination Board said in a statement that, “The slower birth rate is projected for the six-year period to 2010, when the population is estimated to reach more than 94 million.” 

Not to let an opportunity to boast past, the Arroyo government claimed credit for it and said that this rate can already be maintained so that funds for population control may be used for other purposes.

If the growth rate of the population is decreasing, why then is the incidence of hunger increasing?

In its survey from March 8-14, the Social Weather Station (SWS) reported that 2.8 million families or 16.9 percent of the population experienced hunger; 700,000 families or 4.2 percent experienced severe hunger (families going hungry Often or Always in the last three months); 2.1 million families or 12.7 percent experienced moderate hunger (going hungry Once or A Few Times in the last three months)

These figures already represented an increase from the last quarter of 2005.  This is a new record high from the time SWS began surveying hunger in mid-1998. And the incidence of hunger has been in double-digits for eight consecutive quarters. 

There is also no problem in the food supply.  The drop in the production of major food items – rice, root crops, fruits, vegetables and sugar – from 8,779 kilograms per person per year in 1969-71 to 7,299 in 2000-02 is intentional on the part of government.  It has a program for land use conversion to give way to industrial enclaves, recreational facilities, malls, and private subdivisions. It encouraged the shift to cash crops. But it kept on assuring the public that there would be no food shortage. 

The government even allowed the dumping of agricultural surplus from advanced capitalist countries to the detriment of local agricultural production.  As a result, rice imports increased by 540 percent, corn by 320 percent, poultry by 580 percent, beef by 230 percent, pork by 120 percent and fish by 45 percent. The Philippines never had a shortage of these products but these were imported anyway. 

There is an abundance of food in the world and yet people go hungry.  And it is not because of population growth. 

Hunger is not being caused by the lack of supply but by the lack of access to food.  Food is abundant but those with no work or with very low income cannot afford to buy food. 

In the Philippines, those with lack of access to proper nutritional food are even more than the reported incidences of hunger.  With a more realistic poverty threshold of P112 per person per day, poverty and, consequently, lack of access to food affect an estimated 80 percent of the population or a huge 62 million Filipinos who must be considered poor. 

The Arroyo government said that it is clueless as to why hunger is increasing because it is doing everything to address poverty.  On the contrary, it is doing everything to worsen poverty and hunger.  It is making the Filipino people vulnerable to exploitation, profiteering, and price spikes by its policies of import liberalization, deregulation, and privatization of basic utilities and services. It is increasing the tax burden of the people. It fails to generate opportunities for gainful employment in the country. Worse, its massive military operations in the countrysides victimize and dislocate peasants who constitute majority of the Filipino people.     

Malthus was wrong for theorizing that hunger would be caused by population growth.  It is being caused by social inequities and injustice. It is also not true that the Arroyo government is clueless as to why poverty and hunger are getting worse, its policies and programs are making it worse. Bulatlat   

 

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