GenZ Dilemma

While browsing through socmed posts, I came across a headline from an entry by a university scholar that screamed “Sana hindi ninyo na lang ako ipinanganak.” (I wish you didn’t bring me into this world.) Closer to home, a relative once said “Sana ang apelyido natin ay Ayala, o kaya’y Soriano, o kaya’y Villar”. (I wish our surname had been Ayala, or Soriano, or Villar). No wonder, one pundit wisecracked that this is the case of the rich getting richer and the poor are getting children.

Big families expose themselves to demographic vulnerabilities. PopCom

Both pleas were not meant to blame their parents for the hardships when they were young. Rather, these were a pleas for responsible parenthood.

I guess many millennials and Gen Zs have heard their pleas. Many of them chose the path of DINKS (Double Income No Kids Syndrome). Statistics don’t lie. Between 2014 to 2023, registered live births in the Philippines declined by 17.5 per cent from 1,748,857 to 1,448,522.

The sad fact is that wages have not kept up with inflation. Worse, the millennials and GenZs have turned out to be the "Sandwich Generation", where two generations - their parents and children - depend on them for support, financial or otherwise.

If the trend continues, new complications in our social fabric will rear its ugly head. An aging population will be a burden to our health institutions, social services and retirement program. A declining work force will reduce our competitive advantage. Infrastructure like schools, hospitals and work spaces will decline.

I wish this creeping discontent among the young will be addressed sensibly in a positive way - through legislation, though education, through social activism. Give more support and incentives to child and maternal care. Provide more services to senior citizens. More job opportunities and better wages to the labor force. And having more leaders with clear vision, better accountability, and social activism.