The Irony of Having a Prestigious Educational Background While Supporting Stupid Economic Policies

Psychology Spot

I remembered my grades were bad back in late elementary to high school. I almost failed fourth year high school back in K+10. I wanted to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) not because I really wanted to but only to impress some people I dislike. I could say the same why I kept whining that I'll never be able to enter Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU). I remembered how getting an ADMU diploma was everything. I ended up taking business administration instead after I finished my two years Associate in Computer Science (ACS) course. I was already ready for the "dreadful truth" that I wouldn't be accepted into the BSIT course. After all, I'm not technically inclined. Though, there was a time I still felt, "Too bad I'm not taking BSIT!" Well, a lot of people exited the course for commerce courses! I enrolled in graduate school last 2011 (Masters in Business Administration). Yet, I was warned that having an MBA doesn't mean I'm invincible. I tend to feel an MBA makes me invincible. Sadly not and that's where I can become the educated fool--a person who knows so much but fails in real life. Even some people who fell into scams last 2012 (including myself) were MBA students!

Right now, I tend to appeal to what I'd call more intelligent authority to defend my statements. Sadly, some of the people I've met on Facebook have better backgrounds than I do while supporting stupid economic policies. Some of them are graduates from prestigious schools such as the University of the Philippines (UP), ADMU, De La Salle University (DLSU), or even had a degree abroad such as the London School of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, or any school that's difficult to enter. Some have hard to achieve degrees such as an engineering degree or any math-intensive courses like BSIT. Just because a certain someone has a prestigious educational background doesn't mean that they can't do foolish things.

It reminds me when I heard a certain someone say, "Why will you let foreign investors invest here? Only they will get rich!" The statement came from a guy who was an engineering graduate from DLSU. I even hear such statements from people like Teodoro A. Casino (who has his background from DLSU and UP-Los Banos) and Neri J. Colmenares (who graduated economics from San Beda College and had a law degree from UP-Diliman). We also have Kabataan Partylist's Rep. Raoul Danniel A. Manuel who is a cum laude in BS Applied Mathematics at the UP-Diliman. Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago who graduated cum laude from UP-Diliman. Others may have also had their degrees from ADMU. Yet, they ended up supporting stupid economic policies in spite of having a good education background!

What stupid economic policies am I talking about? There's so many to mention but I'd like to highlight the following for this post:

The Filipino First Policy such as the 60-40 arrangement and the negative list.
The government should subsdize basic needs such as telecommunications, water, fuel, and elecricity.
Penalizing the big local businesses (oligarchy) every time they don't meet service quality instead of introducing more competition.
Suspending rent and mortages then having free mass testing, massive sanitation drives, setting up temporary hospitals and the like. In short, setting up more spending while having lesser money.
Asking gasoline providers to sell at a loss even if the world prices of gasoline are rather sky high. The Ukraine vs. Russia incident is just one example of why gasoline prices are skyrocketing.
Supporting the move to give PHP 10,000.00 worth of handouts per month for less fortunate families while supporting economic protectionism.
Trying to do "everything on our own" even when foreign businesses can provide new skills and technology to help local businesses grow.

I'm really amazed at all the comments I've been reading on Facebook. I can even go ahead and provide data but they'll just ignore it. Just reading someone saying that the Ukraine war is "just an excuse" to raise gasoline prices is stupid. If there's a war and there's a problem with supply--doesn't the law of supply and demand, well demand, that if supply is low and demand is high then prices must go higher? It's really basic economics. If anything is to be said to these people, "It's the economics student!" and "Just because you're highly educated doesn't mean you're never wrong!"

Filipino First Policy Linked with Crab Mentality

Having sea crab yesterday or just eating crab, I always think of that old commercial in the 1990s. It was called, "Iwasan ang crab mentality." or "Avoid crab mentality." This makes me recall a scene when I was a child. I saw a pail full of mud crabs (called alimango in Filipino) and if one crab got out, the others pulled it down. The TV commercial showed how if the crabs got together, they could all escape their grizzly fate of becoming eaten for human consumption. Chefs are just lucky crabs pull each other down. However, it also shows that the crabs would rather all be cooked together than let that crab escape. Unfortunately, crab mentality is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines. It's not all that unique among Filipinos. However, it doesn't Filipinos should ever take comfort in engaging in a crab mentality, just because other people do it . Here's an interesting excerpt from Inquirer by Jerry Peres de Tagle PhD: Studies in human behavior ...

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