Not the best time for more babies

THE EDITOR: All three daily newspapers recently highlighted the expected increase in the birth rate in early 2021 due to the extended covid19 lockdown.

For those of us amateur social scientists, this is very worrying news. You see, every single economic and business indicator is heading in the wrong direction. Our national debt has skyrocketed, as has our unemployment rate. Business confidence naturally is at an all-time low. A third of the petrochemical plants in Point Lisas has been shuttered, while it appears unlikely that the OWTU’s valiant bid to restart the Petrotrin refinery will ever see the light of day.

Meanwhile, we are not aware of any significant initiatives being launched in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, high technology, service industries, sport or culture. In other words, there are no new jobs on the horizon to replace the many lost due to the economic downturn and covid19.

In addition, any business growth to come will be with less and less jobs as we work our way into the future. This is because apart from the service industries, greater productivity is being gained with the help of more advanced technology, the introduction of robotics, better machinery leading to ever increasing automation.

Artificial intelligence will also help to replace some jobs, particularly in the financial sector. Literally the future business landscape for all sectors will see productivity being realised with less and less employees.

In this scenario, we already have in TT in the region of 300,000-400,000 people who are currently unable to even feed and house themselves, while there are still more job losses to come. So how on earth can we be looking forward to a baby room in these absolutely dire circumstances?

Indeed, a responsible leadership would currently be urging the population to have as few children as possible while we deal with the jobless fallout of our very desperate economic situation.

GREGORY WIGHT

via e-mail