Welfarism 9: Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)

Yesterday, there was a big forum on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) for the poor, sponsored by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), at the UP School of Economics, Quezon City.

It was a big forum in the sense that many of the top guns of such program -- like the DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, NEDA Secretary Cayetano Paderanga, top officials of the ADB and WB, and "CCT expert" -- were there.

The forum was supposed to "foster public debate" but I think about 80 percent of the invited speakers were pro-CCT. Besides, the budget for 2011 has been approved in the House of Representatives already, along with the P21 B for the CCT alone.

The WB and ADB made huge lending for the program. Whcih means more public debt, more interest payment in the future. Borrow and borrow, the usual thinking of government bureaucrats and officials, upon the prodding of the foreign aid bureaucrats themselves, of course.

Meanwhile, what happened to: education for the poor, healthcare for the poor, seeds and credit for the poor, housing for the poor, agrarian reform for the poor, nutrition for the poor, rallies for the poor, etc.? Now, CCT for the poor, and soon, DCCT (double CCT) for the poor, with double the loans from WB-ADB?

Isn't controlling, if not stopping debt addiction, also pro-poor? How about "stop debt addition for the poor"? Or this is imposible to happen?

If government and foreign aid debt pushers want new programs for the poor, then they should stop and discontinue some old programs for the poor that did not work. There are so many programs and subsidies for the poor that only benefitted the non-poor. The bleeding of public funds that go to endless debt payment (principal + interest) should be reduced if not stopped.

They always say, "save the poor" or "save the economy" or "save the planet". What they really mean is "save ourselves", them central planners and debt pushers. Most of them just live off on tax money, on money forcibly and coercively taken away from the pockets and savings of the productive sectors of society.
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See also:
Welfarism 5: Germany's Tax Hikes, June 28, 2006
Welfarism 6: Obama and US Entitlement, November 11, 2008
Welfarism 7: Squatters in the Univ. of the Philippines (UP), February 23, 2009
Welfarism 8: Send All Monthly Salary to UK Govt First, September 21, 2010