Clinton says big population a plus for RP

President Bill Clinton shocked the entire RH bill supporters when he says that "population is no big problem" for the Philippines. You have 95 or 97 million people consuming practically on local and foreign goods, thereby making our country one of the biggest markets in the region. 


Clinton, actually, is speaking like a capitalist. If you have a big population such as ours, that is seen as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. The goal, therefore, of government is making sure that the economy is more liberated and more open than before so that the flow of goods and services reach even the inner fringes of the territory.


That is the secret why capitalism continues to survive---it thrives on big population. Big populations supply capitalism the elements for survival. Imagine, for example, a company which sells 1 peso candies. If that company has an excellent distribution network, that company will actually be able to get revenues as much as 95 million pesos annually. 


The more open an economy is, the better for capitalism. The more that company penetrates the market, the more that company gets more money, and translate that---more capital. The money that that company generates are used to buy up more things for growth and expansion. The more the company expands, the more and faster and wider its market reach. 


Now, the problem with countries with big population is self-sufficiency. If the state has a government that has no legitimate concerns with the lives of its people, chances are, the opportunities presented by it having a big market are lost. If the State has a weak government, the profits generated by companies exploiting the market size get out, rather than used internally for economic growth.


This happens when multinational companies dominate the market rather than local ones. When multinationals make a killing in profits, this leaves the local ones suffering under the weight of production costs. Without local funding support, local companies suffer than multinationals. 


Now, then, there is also another factor--resources. Usually resources in a state should equal the number of people residing in a territory. In our case, our resources are more than enough to support our population.


The problem is, we share these resources with neighbouring countries who exploit the weakness of our government. Through laws that allows ownership of resources by foreign companies, instead of us, enjoying these resources for the benefit of our people, we again lose the opportunity of maximizing our resources for our competitive advantage.


Yes, Mr. Clinton---we do have a large market and we are living in a country which abounds with resources. The fact, however is, this large market is being exploited and dominated by multinational companies and those resources which you refer to, are being exploited and exported for the benefit of other countries. 


Without a government with good governing policies, and without a non-subservient elite, we cannot really survive as a people. These pluses, these advantages would not redound to the benefit of our people because we have a government that does not know how to govern us, then, we are truly left with no choice but replace this government with a better one.