QUANTITY vs. QUALITY
(Unit 9: Philippine Demography)
By: Regina Clare T. Urbina
Demography
is the branch of social sciences concerned with the study of human populations,
their structure and change (through births, deaths, and migration), and their
relationship with the natural environment and with social and economic change.
Demographic indicators could include population size, population growth rate,
crude birth rate, crude death rate, total fertility rate, life expectancy and
infant mortality. In short, demographic changes affect all areas of human
activity: economic, social, cultural and political. The demographic presentation of the
Philippines shows the rise and impact to the whole Philippine society; counting
Philippines as one of the countries that are encountering overpopulation. A
number of implications can be said of population increase, such as unemployment,
poverty, literacy, family planning, mortality, and leading causes of death.
One of the factors that cause overpopulation
in the Philippines is unemployment. Studies show that Filipinos work for more
than 40 hours or more making them full-time workers. These Filipinos are
considered underemployed. This means that these workers are highly skilled but work
in low paying jobs or in low skill jobs. Another factor is poverty incidence.
It states that fishermen posted the highest poverty incidence but having the
smallest number of poor population. Demographic studies also mentions literacy
as another cause of population increase. A functionally literate person is one
who can read, write, compute and comprehend. Functional literacy rate is higher
among persons with higher level of education. This reflects on the presentation
that 67% of those with some elementary education were functionally literate,
while only 5% percent among those with no formal education were functionally
literate. Family planning is another address to overpopulation in the country. Unmet
need for family planning among married women in the Philippines remains
high. Under this, unplanned pregnancies
result to dramatic rise of population. This is more likely to occur among older
women than younger women. Mortality decline is also another factor. Due to
advancement of medicine, mortality rate is declining. And lastly, the leading
causes of death in the Philippines are heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases
and malignant neoplasm or cancer respectively.
Demographic
studies are essential in determining elements of population changes and their
impact to the whole society. It hopes to activate our social interest on major
population issues and concerns. With the presentations stated above, we are
more aware of the problems that are right in front of us. Not only should we be
aware of these problems at hand, but also be able to respond to these problems
as well. I believe that there are no limits in changing the society for the
better. A step to address this kind of problem is learning how to balance the
quantity in goal of achieving quality. Quality is a characteristic while quantity
is just a measure. Quality must always be over quantity. However, quantity is
not bad in itself. There is power in numbers, and when one can balance such
with an unwavering regard for quality one can achieve far reaching change and
successful development for society and the environment as well.
The citizens of our country should think of others, just not themselves. Poverty is a big thing in our country. One effect of poverty is that families nowadays don't have family planning. Families just keep on having more kids and they don't think about how they could afford a good life for their kids. The country is becoming overpopulated so families should stop and think for a second before doing things that can change their lives.
ReplyDeleteIf a person buys many of the same low quality product while another buys one of the same product but with higher quality, the product with higher quality will still last longer than all the low quality bought products combined. Quality>Quantity always.
ReplyDeleteI agree that instead of adding more numbers to our population, we need to limit our birth rate and divert our attention towards training the next generation for the betterment of our country's future.
ReplyDelete-Paul Beltran
Overpopulation also causes conflicts and wars. When a country becomes overpopulated, it gives rise to unemployment as there fewer jobs to support large number of people. Rise in unemployment gives rise to crime as people will steal various items to feed their family and provide them basic amenities of life.
ReplyDeleteFrances Bosque BSOT 1 -B
It is better to buy some something that'll last longer than buying a lot of that something but isn't durable. Quality over quantity.
ReplyDeleteQuantity as the numbers of people, Quality as the ideas of people, it is about striving for ideals and setting grand goals. Which means, the more numbers of people, the more we are able to build a Good community but it also depends on what quality each person have.
ReplyDeleteOverpopulation rises to unemployed or jobless persons.Parents or about to be parents should think before having kids. If they could handle their needs and if they could provide them proper care. If not, why can't they just wait for the right time to have kids? It leads to a big economic problem to the country. Know your limitations.
ReplyDeleteWe have the power to change our wrong doings.I agree to what the writer says that there are no limits to changing society for the better.As long as we the people have the heart and come together to work as one to eradicate a problem.Like overpopulation we maybe able to control if we just increase and volunteered to help young teenagers to know more about sex education and the disadvantages of doing wrong things then i believe they will change for the better.It may take long to achieve but as long as we make progress then thats the way togo.
ReplyDelete-Marc Lim
I do agree with you that this presentation stated above, made me are more aware of the problems that are right in front of us. All I have to say to the citizens, always know where you limits are, instead of making babies, the citizens, instead, should be focused in finding a job to support their families.
ReplyDeleteThe Philippine economy indeed has a problem producing sufficient jobs for its citizens. One factor of this predicament is also, graduate mismatch. There are too many graduates from a certain course but not enough employers. Also, too many people want to for white collar jobs rather blue collar ones which is great problem since one of the main income generators of our country is agriculture.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fact that it is always quality of quantity. We have to lessen the birth rates here in the country not only for ourselves, but to hopefully increase our standing in the economy and make the Philippines a productive country.
ReplyDelete-Therese Alcoseba BS OT 1-B :D