* My column in BusinessWorld, December 10, 2019.
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The good news in the country’s labor force survey
reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is that unemployment rate
has significantly declined, from 6% in October 2014 to only 4.5% in October
2019. The underemployment rate has also declined to only 13%.
The bad news is that the labor force participation rate
(LFPR) is declining, from 64.3% in October 2014 to 61.5% in October 2019.
Declining LFPR means people are less optimistic, less confident that they will
be hired or they can hire themselves, so they postpone seeking jobs or
entrepreneurship and pursue more studies, training, or bumming around. Those
who join the labor force are more confident, more skilled and that partly
explains the lower unemployment and underemployment rates (see Table 1).
We should still aim for a 2.5% or below unemployment
rate. That number can be considered as “full employment” as the 2.5% are
considered as short-term “voluntary unemployment,” like people who are offered
a P20,000/month job and refuse to take it as they wait for P25,000/month or
higher job offers.
One recent issue that can have an adverse impact on
employment — on the manufacturers, shops, and sellers — is the vaping ban, or
heavy regulations and higher taxation of e-cigarettes and tobacco substitutes
like vaping products.
We often hear many “crisis” and catastrophe stories —
climate crisis, plastic crisis, non-communicable diseases (NCD) crisis,
sugar/obesity crisis, tobacco crisis, vaping crisis, etc. Most if not all are
exaggerations. If any or all of them are true, people should be living shorter,
sicklier lives. Far out as people now are living longer, healthier, and
wealthier as shown by the rising life expectancy.
When more people die of NCDs, that is good news. That
means less people die of communicable and infectious diseases, less people die
of wars and violence. More people though can die of injuries and accidents as
people are now more mobile across islands and countries. Death by injury in the
Philippines is declining but is higher than those in Japan, Singapore, and
Indonesia, but lower than those in South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam
(see Table 2).
“Harm reduction” is being done to mitigate injuries and
diseases as people do what they want without harming others. Like helmets and body
protection for cyclists and motorcycle riders, low alcohol content drinks like
beer vs “high octane” hard drinks, and using vapor/heating instead of burning
nicotine.
Dr. Carrie Wade, Director for Harm Reduction Policy, R
Street Institute in Washington DC, USA, has good scientific research work on
the biological mechanisms of opioid and drug addiction, addiction as a disease,
and how the neuroadaptations of an addicted brain can result in destructive
behaviors. She believes that “harm reduction practices can shift really risky
behaviors to more neutral behaviors, decrease disease transmission and health
care costs.”
In a paper, “E-Cigarette Bans Come at the Expense of
Public Health,” she wrote, “Is it right to ban a largely successful quitting
tool at the expense of people who benefit from it? Policymakers need to
recognize that not all tobacco products are created equally, and it doesn’t
make sense to prohibit and overly restrict safer alternatives when fatal ones
are cemented in the landscape of our laws, economy and culture.”
If the nanny state is to be consistent in protecting
people from themselves, it should also impose more regulations and prohibitions
on sky jumping, rock climbing, downhill bicycle and motorcycle riding, and many
full contact sports. Since the nanny state is not consistent, it should reduce
its appetite for more regulations and prohibitions and recognize that people
own their body, not the state or NGOs. There should be more personal, parental,
and civil society responsibility in public health, not more state command and
control.
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