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| CoRRECT Movement |
It's the -ber months and it's only 90+ days before Christmas. I feel like every year, Christmas gets worse. Just Google "Christmas Day disasters" and let's stop thinking Christmas is some magical special time where the world is at peace with love. At this point, I feel like always complaining about last-minute Christmas shopping (read here). It's been a leading cause of traffic. Some people even plan to do their shopping on December 24th. Some argue that some people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Some are still waiting for their Christmas bonuses. However. one must question why they don't have money left. Think every dumb way possible to drain that paycheck (read here). One can take a look at poor money habits such as putting your wants over needs. People living paycheck-to-paycheck should focus on their needs, maybe avoid payday blowouts as much as possible, and focus on trying to make ends meet first before anything. Yet, we know how Filipino society is typical with putting wants over needs. Payday? They decide to go on a blowout, buy the latest iPhone (and mind you, it's that expensive), going gambling (which is a real money killer), and you know what happens next.
I always tend to argue even until now, "Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?" It also reminded me of my college days when I had to meet students with poor money habits. Somebody I knew dated a girl for her money. Somebody I knew even said it didn't matter for her parents even if it took more than 10 years to finish her course. I soon said, "Isn't it any wonder why you have no money? Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?" The next thing to happen is rich-shaming because they felt it's the fault of the rich that they're poor. Some people even have this mentality, "Why should you worry about money? Aren't you rich?" Nobody gets rich by carelessly handling or giving away money. If you donated everything to charity today then you won't be able to give to charity for the days to come.
I always tend to argue even until now, "Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?" It also reminded me of my college days when I had to meet students with poor money habits. Somebody I knew dated a girl for her money. Somebody I knew even said it didn't matter for her parents even if it took more than 10 years to finish her course. I soon said, "Isn't it any wonder why you have no money? Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?" The next thing to happen is rich-shaming because they felt it's the fault of the rich that they're poor. Some people even have this mentality, "Why should you worry about money? Aren't you rich?" Nobody gets rich by carelessly handling or giving away money. If you donated everything to charity today then you won't be able to give to charity for the days to come.
I remembered my high school Asian history exam. I always spoke about how discipline may be the key to improving the Philippines. I always mentioned how Singapore was a very disciplined country. Maybe, that's why Singapore is so rich. The late Lee Kuan Yew even wrote his book From Third World to First which serves as a legacy. That book should be made readily available in the Philippines. I felt that if and every Filipino were disciplined--the Philippines will improve. It's sad really how K+10 didn't have middle school and high school. It's a shame really that I had to wait until I was fourth year high school in K+10 to know economics. Not even the impressive intelligence of a teacher who's pretty much like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago could give me that literacy. I had to wait until college to know how economics is part of life. It sounds stupid but it's true.
What I tend to ignore (and what people tend to ignore) is that it's almost impossible (if not impossible) to discipline poor people. If one is so poor and can't afford food--stealing may become the only option. Some people work several jobs to make ends meet. At the end of the day, the breadwinner is too exhausted. The father is already too tired. The mother is already too tired. More often than not, they might even be too stuck with their several menial jobs to notice that their children are badly in need of a spanking and scolding. They're working several menial jobs just to make ends meet. The salary rate of the Philippines is the lowest in the ASEAN region. Some even end up working abroad because salaries are higher abroad. Yet, the family can't even be taught to value money if they rely too much on OFW remittance (read here). During COVID-19, some poor people can't even practice social distancing at home because they live in very cramped areas.
It's a good thing I was able to get deeper insights into how Singapore and other former third-world countries rose. Some say that the third-world countries only accepted foreign direct investment (FDI) only after their local businesses prospered. That's a very blatant lie as Lee stated that if they waited for the Singaporeans to be industrialists--they would've starved to death. Instead, what Lee did was to invite multinational corporations (MNCs) to invest in Singapore while it was still not business-savvy. Singapore had a long way to go. Lee had to sit down for 31 years before Singapore truly became even more powerful. During the course of its challenge--other nations somehow followed its economic model. Two communist countries namely Vietnam and China both followed Singapore's example and succeeded.
It's a good thing I was able to get deeper insights into how Singapore and other former third-world countries rose. Some say that the third-world countries only accepted foreign direct investment (FDI) only after their local businesses prospered. That's a very blatant lie as Lee stated that if they waited for the Singaporeans to be industrialists--they would've starved to death. Instead, what Lee did was to invite multinational corporations (MNCs) to invest in Singapore while it was still not business-savvy. Singapore had a long way to go. Lee had to sit down for 31 years before Singapore truly became even more powerful. During the course of its challenge--other nations somehow followed its economic model. Two communist countries namely Vietnam and China both followed Singapore's example and succeeded.
Some say that it's wasteful to allow MNCs to invest in the Philippines because Filipinos will just waste the money they'll earn working from them. I can't imagine if Lee decided to say that. Singapore used to be crime-infested. Reading through From Third World to First made me think Singapore may have been worse than Tondo in Manila. I'd like to say that there's a tendency for people to waste their first paycheck. However, that doesn't mean people shouldn't get employed. Let's see more MNCs enter the Philippines. Let's say that the Public Services Act of 2022 will generate more jobs (which it will). We start to have more Filipinos employed. Okay, it's very easy to waste that money because you feel like you have your own money. However, there's room for learning. The Filipino employed at the MNC may have wasted the money. There may be productive people around him. Maybe, the Filipino employed at the MNC will be taught smart money habits by the boss. Overtime, the Filipino working for an MNC may learn how to go beyond paycheck-to-paycheck living. Even better, more businesses may increase the daily minimum wage as a result of better economics. More businesses registered equals more taxes, and more prosperity for the nation.
If there are more people employed (whether at a local company or a foreign company) then more Filipinos will start to rethink things. Local businesses will either learn to shape up or ship out. Good examples of businesses that grew via competition are Jollibee and Bo's Coffee Club. Bo's Coffee Club had faced much competition even today (read here). Bo's Coffee Club's foreign competitors can come in the form of MNCs like Chatime and Gong Cha. Jollibee had to face McDonald's. Now, Jollibee is an MNC proving that Filipino businesses can compete against FDI (read here). If local businesses start to improve thanks to competition then think how much more will it retrain the local Filipino workforce. Bo's Coffee Club faced it head on and it's still going strong. Jollibee's status as an MNC proves that yes, Filipino businesses can become MNCs. But Jollibee became an MNC when it competed against an MNC. The same goes for the late John Gokongwei's Universal Robina as it has branches abroad too.
If more people in the Philippines are employed (with better pay) then there's really more room for discipline. The father will be home after an eight-hour shift. There will be much less absentee parenting. In short, if the parents are employed with better opportunities then think there's more time to take care of the children. The father can easily get the belt or the cane to spank the children's buttocks if they did something as stupid as using his credit card to buy a Playstation 5 online without his permission. It's very unlike if the father's OFW remittance was used by the children to by a Playstation 5 (without the father's consent) and he was working from Dubai, Singapore, or any country where OFWs go to earn better money. It'd be easier to monitor children stealing money from their parents' savings if both parents were around. It would mean less absentee parenting therefore much less excuse not to discipline the children. In short, it's been more of a lack of progress that has led to the Philippines' bad culture.
Based on experience, trying to discipline every single Filipino to achieve economic growth is stupid. I really had countless tantrums trying to do it. The Philippines has 7,107 islands. The total population of 109.6 billion is estimated by statistics. Can you imagine trying to discipline 109.6 billion Filipinos? I'd already become a corpse by then (in short, I'd be dead) trying to do that. Even if I do become the president of the Philippines--can I really discipline the Philippines? Let's say I became president in some time--the population boom may have doubled by then! I'd be at the Malacanang and there's no surveillance camera on every island, every home, etc. I might die even before barely a half of my term trying to discipline every single Filipino. I might go ahead and order the building of concentration camps for wayward people. All those concentration camps that would be built under my regime will be good only on paper. It's because it's just impossible to discipline every single Filipino.
Developed countries are more disciplined because of development. Yes, we need discipline for progress but that alone will not help. South Korea can have its military training for men all it wants. However, South Korea will still remain poor if it's as protectionist as its rival state, North Korea. Singapore did both discipline and economics. One might even say that Deng Xiaoping was no-nonsense guy. Deng can keep sending wayward people to concentration camps but that will not help the economy. What helped the economy was when Deng decided to open China up to the world market (read here). Deng couldn't discipline every single Chinese and there were so many wayward Chinese thanks to Mao Zedong's stupid policies. China has a population bigger than the Philippines. Deng was an old man when he took over. Deng would've probably died a lot earlier if he tried to discipline every single Chinese.
The solution for economics is to remove excessive restrictions. Cash handouts, if ever, should only be handed out during times of crisis (like the current COVID-19 pandemic) like massive layoffs that couldn't be avoided. Giving handouts should only be an emergency measure. Otherwise, poverty alleviation programs (such as scholarship programs) should be encouraged among private enterprises with coordination from the government. Former Philippine president Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the Public Services Act of 2022. The late former Philippine president Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III signed several laws that loosened up the negative list. Economist (and Liberal Party of the Philippines supporter) Andrew J. Masigan even saw economic charter change as a badly needed mechanism. Filipinos now should listen to Kishore Mahbubani says about FDI. Mahbubani had proven Hilario G. Davide Jr. wrong even before (read here). The Philippines needs FDI in its list of registered companies. It will benefit better from it.
With that, we can also consider upgrading the public school system too. I remembered being cross-enrolled for CAT-1 in high school. I remembered taking NEAT exams in public schools. The comfort rooms were anything but comfortable. With FDI, one can have more adequate funding to make sure that public schools can have functioning CRs, functioning classrooms, better pay for teachers, and the like. It would mean that the less privileged can still get good education as a result. Aquino III's approval of K+12 wasn't enough. This also means that when ROTC is restored--there will be real serious training and not just wooden rifles. It would mean that public schools can get more funding because there will be more taxes from both local businesses and FDI. Public schools may soon be easier to handle if there's a fully motivated workforce, if the less fortunate will not be that less fortunate, and that would be because there's more funding thanks to welcoming FDI to invest in the Philippines.
References
Books
"From Third World to First--The Singapore Story: 1965-2000) by Lee Kuan Yew
Harpers Collins Publishers
Videos
"The Singapore economic model - VPRO documentary - 2009" by VRPO Documentary (September 8, 2018)
Websites
"Long overdue laws finally passed" by Andrew J. Masigan (April 06, 2022)
"The legacy of Philippines President Benigno Aquino" by Laura Southgate (August 25, 2015)
"What Was the Great Leap Forward?" by The Investopedia Team, Reviewed by Michael J. Boyle (September 22, 2021)