Why Christmas Every Day (Mixed with More Economic Protectionism) Will Make the Philippines the Poorest Country on Earth

Tomorrow is the time for Noche Buena, right? For Filipinos, there's really that overly festive attitude that makes me think that someone right now might be wishing it was Christmas every day. I decided to write this entry before that "Big Day" (and last year was a cheerless Christmas) for the reason that I could. I felt that all the exaggerations done with citizens saying that inflation in the Philippines is now "highest in the world" is because they feel the need for lavish celebrations (read here). There are complaints about the prices of one kilo of lechon (roasted pig), whipped cream, and almost everything fatty for Christmas dinner has increased. I guess this is what you get from a nation that lives with the mentality of, "If it's bitter then just add sugar. (read here)".

With bad money habits, it's very common for people to splurge on their paychecks (read here). That's why I feel discussing economics with an overspender is incredibly frustrating (read here). Living paycheck to paycheck means you really need to be more careful about how you spend. Instead, they think about, "Payday? Yes! Let's party!" The cycle repeats itself and when December comes, they have no money. They repeat the mentality, "If it's bitter then just add sugar!" They try to celebrate to forget their problems only for their problems to worsen by January. I wonder if they enjoy being chased by their loansharks? They would have the bad habit of borrowing money in order to celebrate. The bit question worth asking is, "Why did you just run out of money? What were you doing?"

Christmas season is the time for the Christmas bonus and 13th-month pay, right? I guess it's safe to assume that after receiving their 13th month's pay, some of these wastrels may be saying in whatever Filipino dialect they speak, saying, "If only it were Christmas every day!" I believe a good amount of people who are probably wishing for it right now are also the same people who speak ignorantly about economics. They may be the same people who still believe that the Philippines is stuck in a game of conquest between OFWs vs. FDIs (read here). Such people may be saying stuff like, "Are you crazy? Let the foreigners invest here and they will exploit us!" All the while, they hypocritically write it on American-made platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook, and Twitter. Hypocritically ironic isn't it?

Ever heard of the statement, "Be careful about what you wish for?" Well, that's going to be a cautionary tale. I remembered one of those childhood Christmas specials was called Christmas Every Day. It was a cautionary tale when a little girl (the paternal grandmother of the children) once wished it would be Christmas every day. At first, it felt delightful because there was a feast day after day. However, the effect soon went from good to bad to worse. Inflation happened because supply was short and demand was high. I kind of laughed looking at it when people gave rags to each other because they ran out of presents. Soon enough, the prices of chicken increased as well after the turkey supply got so low. Supply and demand really play a key every Christmas. That's why some stores usually put on sale older items or stock up before Christmas. Some buy cheaper supplies before Christmas shopping begin to make a profit.

Now, let's imagine Christmas every day happened in the Philippines mixed with economic protectionism. I could think of other consequences that could happen aside from the fictional cartoon I just mentioned earlier. Just think about it inflation has already happened affecting the Noche Buena. I guess such people think that Christmas should make inflation magically go away. Instead, it will make it worse. If it were Christmas every day then commercial establishments (which will be very few thanks to Filipino First Policy) will have to give the 13th-month pay and Christmas bonuses every month. People will be overspending to the point Christmas gifts will be hit by inflation. Worse, by not importing when needed, you can expect the prices of items for Christmas to even skyrocket. Electricity will eventually be so expensive only few can afford it. There will be so many brownouts because only local electricity suppliers will be there. I can expect frequent fires to also happen due to people using faulty Christmas lights or because of excessive usage of Christmas lights. Once again, supply and demand will play a factor to bankrupting a Philippines where it's Christmas all the time.

Worse, it means that the Philippine government will have to borrow money that it can't pay. It was already bad enough that the late Lee Kuan Yew mentioned why he refused to loan money to the Marcos Sr. Administration. If they want it to be Christmas every day then the government will have to borrow more money (eventually) because of inflation. You can imagine hyperinflation. One box of whipped cream will cost as much as PHP 10,000.00 or even higher. If they say, "Well, print more money!" Unfortunately, printing more money will devalue the money. That's exactly what happened with Venezuela (read here). Venezuela has printed so much money that they have inflation to be much higher than the Philippines.

If they're still demanding also for higher salaries, lower prices of goods, and handouts for all (read here) then they can expect worse. If goods and services are rendered lower then salaries have to be lower. It's absolutely basic accounting that salaries are part of the means of production. If you're increasing salaries then you need to sell at a higher price. To have higher salaries but selling your goods at ridiculously low prices is selling at a loss. If that's their wish to include in their Christmas every day--they can expect businesses to shut down. Eventually, they will start to use expired whipped cream, expired queso de bola, and I hope they enjoy their rotten food for their daily noche buena. It's because fresh food will no longer be available as a result of feasting daily.

I'm no top economist but I'm speaking this based on basic economics. Christmas should be as it is--an occassion to look forward to. If it were Christmas every day then it will diminish the specialness of the holiday. Then again I guess some people are still having their deluded fantasies of a Christmas every day utopia, am I right?

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 ...

It's a Common, Broken New Year's Resolution Among Filipinos to Do Better with Their Finances and Economic Knowledge

Happy New Year, right? There's this statement in Cebuano that says, "Sa Disyembre nag lipay-lipay. Sa Enero, naglikay-likay." For non-Cebuano speakers, it means, "Enjoying all December. Fleeing in January." It's because of the bad habits that are common during the Christmas season. I wrote an entry talking about when a Merry Christmas leads to an Unhappy New Year . After Christmas vacation, it can be common to talk about New Year's Resolutions. Sadly, there are resolutions meant to be broken or resolutions on paper only. Several people finish high school, go to college, get a job, but never gain the necessary knowledge of economics and finances. Instead, they continue to live the same habits year after year. Even worse, the same foolish behavioral patterns get passed down f rom parent to child to grandchild. Still stuck with financial habits that put one in a financial dodo The New Year starts and it can get funny. I tend to hate December because of the ...

Rejoicing Over Filipino Businesses Getting 100% Ownership Abroad While Crying Over FDIs Getting Allowed to Own 100% Ownership

The Philippine senatorial elections are on, right? One of the many things candidates (regardless of party) need to hold is the need for economic reform. As I continue discussing economic charter change, several objections are held. One of the objections is allowing 100% FDI--a subject often subjected to mockery. These mockeries can range from promoting colonial mentality, selling the Filipino to foreigners, borrowing money from abroad (which is definitely not investment, read here ), or even the ridiculous notion that FDI includes Filipino women dating foreigners (read here ). This time, I would like to address another hypocrisy. This time, it's all about Filipinos who rejoice that Filipino businesses are investing with 100% FDI ownership. All the while, this is crying foul when there's a law passed that will allow foreigners to own 100% FDI ownership , in the Philippines. This is a meme to expose the hypocrisy. Jollibee has 158 branches in Vietnam, which I assume happened bec...

The Recent Microsoft Global Outage Should be a Wake-Up Call to the Philippines' Need to Fix the 1987 Constitution's Economic Flaws

The Express Tribune The recent Microsoft Global Outage was caused by Crowdstrike. Since I'm no IT or CS expert--it's better if I let them talk in the news. From BBC News , here's a detail from Crowdstrike that reveals the root cause of the problem has been systemic with an update: This is still a little unclear. CrowdStrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. According to CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update . "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he said. "This is not a security incident or cyber-attack." What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem. Thankfully, those who created th...

Is Vietnam Getting More FDI Inflows than the Philippines, Because of Its Supposedly Better Fight Against Corruption?

Discussing international marketing or world economics with boomer Filipinos can be painful. Some people still believe in the Filipino First Policy. I cite Vietnam as an example of why economic charter change (called econ cha cha) should be done. Some people cite that Vietnam's increase in FDI is because of the fight against corruption. I don't deny Vietnam has a crackdown on corruption. I don't deny that fighting against corruption helps the economy. However, fighting corruption without the proper tools and not having economic development, is useless. Fighting corruption isn't a panacea or cure-all either. Spanking is part of child discipline, not the whole of child discipline. People who only spank but never teach right and wrong, render spanking ineffective . Instead, look at Vietnam's economic policy vs. the Philippines' economic policy. Some people blame the following for the Philippines' lack of foreign investments, some things Vietnam also suffers fr...

Trying to Plan Out What to Do as a Bull Market Starts

I was laughing just thinking about ignorance about the bear and bull markets. Yes, we know about social media gossipers (seldom called a marites in Filipino) tend to spread gossip. I ran into several people panicking when the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) was mostly red. Others would panic but Warren Edward Buffett recommends, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful." That's the best market timing. Some people do cost averaging because it's practically less risky in contrast to lump sum investing. Buffett recommends that non-technical people should periodically invest in a low-cost index fund over a period of ten years. Now, the Philippine Star has an article by Wilson Sy, where the first paragraph talks about the Philippines' entry towards the bull market : Most stock markets have undergone a dramatic shift to start the year, transitioning from a bear market to a bull market. Peak inflation, a slower pace of interest rate h...

When the Education Cares TOO MUCH About Grades, Schools Produce Idiots Instead of Intellectuals

During the pandemic, I was left in limbo thinking about my poor performance under K+10. It was something to think about that a classmate of mine who was both a summa cum laude and an honor student, ended up posting on his wall, "Students cheat because the education system cares more about grades instead of learning." The class salutatorian of our batch even commented about the good old days. I always had that feeling of insecurity and envy towards people better than me. But as Warren Edward Buffet would say, "Don't hate successful people. Learn from them instead." One of them is currently a teacher and the other is in Canada. I thought about my insecurities especially when I used to believe I was descended from a fine scholar and my family was a family of scholars. I remembered the time I was taking MBA and got conned. I was asked, "Is that what MBA taught you?" I got touchy and ended up admitting, eventually, that I was only taking MBA for the presti...

My Personal Opinion on the Recent Universal Robina Incident

I was doing some news readings and I found out about the death of a certain Stephen Corilla. The incident happened in the Universal Robina Corporation's factory in Mandaue a few days ago. It really chilled my bones to read these details which I'll share from Sunstar : POLICE are set to investigate a food and beverage plant in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City after one of its workers was killed on duty while cleaning a pulverizer machine Thursday afternoon, June 2, 2022. Cpl. Glenn Bordalba of the Mandaue City Police Office Station 3 in Barangay Basak who is leading the investigation told SunStar Cebu Monday, June 6, that they will visit the Universal Robina Corp. (URC) Mandaue City plant in Tabok on Tuesday, June 7, to investigate the matter. Bordalba added that they have not started the investigation yet as they were not allowed entry to the site by the URC management after the incident was reported to them. An approval from the corporation’s consultant is needed for the police to...

My Experience with Tealive Cebu at the Ayala Central Bloc

I have tasted several foreign-owned tea shops. My first experience with tea shops was with Chatime (read here ). Now, I heard of this new coffee shop (or tea shop, take your pick) called Tealive. At first, I thought it was Taiwanese but when I Googled it--it was Malaysian. It made sense that the company uses only Halal-approved ingredients since Malaysia has a huge Muslim population. The founder is Malaysian-Chinese businessman Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings. Loob here also means inside as the Tagalog language also derives from the Malay language. Tealive would later head to the Philippines. It would be like getting Filipinos closer to their Malaysian heritage after all. The branches in Cebu include SM City, SM Seaside, and Ayala Central Bloc. The one I ate was at Ayala Central Bloc. Someone gave me a taste of their sandwich and their signature coffee. I was pretty much impressed that I decided to dine in there. I went to try their lychee tea and chees burger. For a note, their ...

Getting Stingy at the Cost of Fire Safety?

March is fire prevention month, right? If there are people who are too extravagant then I'd like to talk again about stingy people (read the article here ). I've tried growing up with the stingy vs. extravagant extremes. Some people become stingy even with the necessities. It's one thing to deny a child a children's party since it's a want . It's another thing to deny a child stuff they need all in the name of saving money . Even worse, some people may be more than stingy enough to ignore fire safety. A stingy person just wants to save. It's almost like the story of the Miser and His Gold or The Rich Miser . I really find these stories entertaining at the same time, irritating. The first story has the miser who hid his gold under the ground. Some people today are too distrustful of banks and investments. The second story has a rich man who even dresses in rags, denies his son's shoes, had his wife cook some cake only for him, and was so greedy he had it ...

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