Using "No to US Imperialism" as an Excuse to Reject Foreign Investments?
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| Psychology Today |
By all accounts, the Aquino administration has had a strong economic record. The Philippines is an emerging economy, which has steadily grown under Mr. Aquino due to the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI).FDI has been rising steadily in recent years, and between January and November 2014, FDI flows reached USD 5.7 billion, which represents a more than 60% increase compared to 2013. Most of these investments went into manufacturing gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply, finance and insurance, transportation and storage, and professional, scientific and technical activities.
I remembered reading Facebook comments during Aquino III's term and during former Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Duterte signed the Public Services Act of 2022 (which I believe will help the country, read why here). A lot of ignorant comments can go from "No to U.S. Imperialism!" or "It's Duterte's gift to China for takeover!" I wonder if those who wrote the comments think that there are only three nations in the world. Are the only nations the USA, China, and the Philippines? It seems that a lot of leftist slogans say to get rid of the fascist regime of U.S.-China-(insert president). The names of former Philippine presidents that I could remember were there are Joseph M. Ejercito-Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Aquino III, and Duterte. All these names appeared in those slogans done by protesters in the streets. I view my world map and I don't see empty spaces between the USA, China, and the Philippines. Canada is near the USA. China has Russia and Mongolia above it. Taiwan is an island near China that declared independence during the reign of Chiang Kai Shek.
What really makes the anti-USA (or anti-American) posts funny are these. A lot of platforms used to write against the cry of "No to US/American imperialism!" are American-based. A good example is that these comments can be found on Facebook and Twitter--both American-owned. Google (which I use to write my posts) is American-owned. WordPress is also American-owned. I find it funny that "think-tanks" like Bayan Muna (and Teodoro Casino has a WordPress site), Kabataan Partylist, IBON Foundation, and the Philippine Anti-Fascist League (which its admins are really a bad joke) are using these American media. They might say that they have no choice because the Americans own the social media platforms or "Why not use it against them?" Still, it's absolutely hypocritical that these guys are also using Apple products such as MacPROs and iPhones. A strange oddity is also that members of the New People's Army (NPA) are using MacPROs and iPhones for a start.
Benefiting from American FDI
The late Lee Kuan Yew had even admitted to inviting American investments. It's one thing to accept meddling from arrogant American politicians. It's another thing to accept American investments from private companies. The book From Third World to First by Lee also provided these insights on Pages 58-59:
After several years of disheartening trial and error, we concluded that Singapore's best hope lay with the American multinational corporations (MNCs). When the Taiwanese and Hong Kong entrepreneurs came in the 1960s, they brought low technology such as textile and toy manufacturing, labor-intensive but not large-scale. American MNCs brought higher technology in large-scale operations, creating many jobs. They had weight and confidence. They believed that their government was going to stay in Southeast Asia and their businesses were safe from confiscation or war loss.
I gradually crystallized my thoughts and settled on a two-pronged strategy to overcome our disadvantages. The first was to leapfrog the region, as the Israelis had done. This idea sprang from a discussion I had with a UNDP expert who visited Singapore in 1962. In 1964, while on a tour of Africa, I met him again in Malawi. He described to me how the Israelis, faced with a more hostile environment than ours, had found a way around their difficulties by leaping over their Arab neighbors who boycotted them, to trade with Europe and America. Since our neighbors were out to reduce their ties with us, we had to link up with the developed world-America, Europe, and Japan-and attract their manufacturers to produce in Singapore and export their products to the developed countries.
The accepted wisdom of development economists at the time was that MNCs were exploiters of cheap land, labor, and raw materials. This "dependency school" of economists argued that MNCs continued the colonial pattern of exploitation that left the developing countries selling raw materials to and buying consumer goods from the advanced countries. MNCs controlled technology and consumer preferences and formed alliances with their host governments to exploit the people and keep them down. Third World leaders believed this theory of neocolonialist exploitation, but Keng Swee and I were not impressed. We had a real-life problem to solve and could not afford to be conscribed by any theory or dogma. Anyway, Singapore had no natural resources for MNCs to exploit. All it had were hard-working people, good basic infrastructure, and a government that was determined to be honest and competent. Our duty was to create a livelihood for 2 million Singaporeans. If MNCs could give our workers employment and teach them technical and engineering skills and management know-how, we should bring in the MNCs.
The Philippines had even benefited from American investments for a long time. We have 7-Eleven, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Seattle's Best, Starbucks, Kenny Rogers' Roasters, JP Morgan and Chase, Bank of America, etc., and other American-based companies? These companies on Philippine soil have provided jobs for Filipinos first. Sure, they might need some American employees to arrive but it's to teach the Filipino employees new skills to run the company. The last time I went to these American companies--I was served by a Filipino and not an American. It's because foreign investors would want to employ locals first, buy local supplies first, and get whatever is available so they can begin business as soon as possible. The last time I had a delivery from Grab and FoodPanda--the drivers were Filipino themselves. I'd only expect a Singaporean driver if I was ordering via Grab in Singapore and a German driver if I were ordering via FoodPanda in Germany. The same goes for American companies in the Philippines. They hire locals first and I'll always expect by cup of Starbucks to be prepared by a Filipino employee.
Hard lessons whenever the US became protectionist
It's also important to learn what happened whenever the USA promoted protectionism. The USA became a great country not through protectionism but through free markets. To say the USA became great through protectionism needs to learn from the previous administration. The former US President Donald J. Trump promoted protectionism through tariffs and guess what? Protectionism may give local businesses a boost but it's only a short boost. Besides, The Conversation even gave this on Trump's protectionism and how it ruined the USA in some way:
The losers
Unfortunately, not all industries are enjoying the same success.
Of the 20 major manufacturing categories in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, only six have grown faster during the trade war – which arguably began with the threat of widespread tariff increases in April of 2018 – than in previous years. The rest, which include chemicals, paper and textiles, either didn’t enjoy a boost or lost ground during the period.
And here is one lesson from the trade war. If Trump and his supporters want to claim that tariffs helped accelerate job creation in machinery and metals, then it follows that his policies should share some of the blame for the less encouraging performance of other sectors hurt by retaliation from other countries.
After Trump extended steel tariffs to the European Union, the EU hit America’s textiles industry. Canada targeted some paper products in retaliation for tariffs on steel and softwood lumber. And China, Trump’s primary antagonist, hit chemicals along with a large swath of other industries – with further retaliation on the way.
Looking for good news
The competing job numbers explain why the debate over Trump’s tariffs are full of confusing anecdotes – and why most anyone can find “good news” to support their favorite argument.
Americans have heard United Steel Workers thank Trump for helping bring over 1,000 jobs back to Birmingham, Alabama. They’ve also heard General Motors announce that it lost US$1 billion in 2018, partly because tariffs contributed to rising production costs, and that as many as 14,000 jobs are being cut.
A fuller picture of how well workers are doing requires looking beyond the jobs numbers at how much money they’re actually taking home – and how it’s affecting their living standards.
And none of this says anything about another crucial part of the equation: consumer prices. If the latest data from Goldman Sachs is on the money, things are about to get a whole lot worse for working-class Americans as the price tags attached to products affected by the trade war begin to rocket upward.
This is hardly good news for the average household.
What made America a great economic superpower--it was getting rid of any protectionist measures. The Great Depression was, after all, also caused by protectionism (read here). These protectionist measures only benefited a few at the cost of many. This is also why I don't praise Carlos P. Garcia to be some hero either. Yet, Garcia still remains buried at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani (Graveyard of the Heroes). What we need to learn is that the USA rose not through protectionism but through international trade. Trump nearly ruined it with his protectionist rules. I blame the rise of protectionism as why so many Americans today are spoiled brats. That's why I even dropped the American dream. I'm afraid that US President Joe Biden has also copied Trump's protectionism too, to a certain extent. I personally hoped Trump's replacement will ease such policies. Instead, it seems that Biden is determined to continue the same blunder. How's that for making America great again?
A bit of knowledge from The Atlantic regarding free trade and why the US needs to be serious about it:
Free trade is not a gift from Americans to others. Free trade enriches Americans too. It creates global markets for the goods and services that Americans sell most competitively: everything from soybeans to pharmaceuticals to insurance to software. Free trade reduces prices for the things Americans buy, and especially for the things bought most often by the poorest Americans. With inflation concerns uppermost in mind, it seems irrational to the point of perversity for Biden to volunteer the U.S. taxpayer to pay unnecessarily high prices for goods and services that could be bought more cheaply from partners and allies. It seems irrational to the point of perversity to pledge that Americans would fight and die to protect, say, South Korea from invasion, but not buy highway fenders from South Korea if South Korea can sell them for less.
