You know, when people ask why I'm no longer Catholic, it's this. Maybe I could understand certain things...but the decision to embrace a "culture of life" by essentially making poor women have child after child who is going to be progressively more and more malnourished and impoverished just...ugh. It repulses me. (Throw in the tendency to go, "Condoms don't prevent HIV! Well, unless you're a gay prostitute, in which case I guess you couldn't get pregnant anyway, so go for it...")
Well, and there are some arguments against that logic. A lot of economic activity comes from technological developments and capital improvements. More people = higher people to capital ratio. Which in turn tends to mean less resources spent on education for children (which also tends to mean less technology/less countries interested in investing capital on a country with people who can't, you know, use machines, or answer telephones, or whatever.)
Economics is an imperfect science. But some economists blame China's One Child policy on its rapid economic rise. (The logic goes, "Since families only have one kid, they can spend a lot of money educating that one kid. Which in turn gives an educated work force, which can modernize the country.") Not going to say whether the theory is true or not, but it's every bit as good as the one of, "Lots of people help a country have lots of productivity." (Which I'd argue really isn't true.)
This is why politics and religion should stay separate. No religion should have this much influence on the policies of a country, and neither politics nor religion should be allowed to dictate women's reproductive decisions.
"When I go to Mass, I hear the priest give sermons saying that pills are bad," Naz said. "But whenever I hear that, I just say to myself that for me, it's not evil, it's not bad or it's not sinful.
"What is more sinful is to have more children than I can afford to feed."Naz should know. She lives through it every day. And I can imagine the dread, the nightmare of any parent, seeing their child die because they can't afford healthcare or because of malnourishment. I'm sure she'll skip every meal if that means it'll feed her children, but how long can her body cope with that
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I hate how influential the Catholic Church is in the Philippines - especially since it's a remnant from Spanish colonialism.
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Economics is an imperfect science. But some economists blame China's One Child policy on its rapid economic rise. (The logic goes, "Since families only have one kid, they can spend a lot of money educating that one kid. Which in turn gives an educated work force, which can modernize the country.") Not going to say whether the theory is true or not, but it's every bit as good as the one of, "Lots of people help a country have lots of productivity." (Which I'd argue really isn't true.)
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"When I go to Mass, I hear the priest give sermons saying that pills are bad," Naz said. "But whenever I hear that, I just say to myself that for me, it's not evil, it's not bad or it's not sinful.
"What is more sinful is to have more children than I can afford to feed."Naz should know. She lives through it every day. And I can imagine the dread, the nightmare of any parent, seeing their child die because they can't afford healthcare or because of malnourishment. I'm sure she'll skip every meal if that means it'll feed her children, but how long can her body cope with that ( ... )
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