The Economic Ignorance of Supporting Excessive FDI Restrictions While Overspending on IMPORTED Luxury Items

Asteria Lending

The long weekend is over and it's back to work and school, right? I was reminded of a conversation I had during the 2016 elections. An issue I rose was specifically was that "Regardless of who wins, the candidate must work hard towards the removal of economic restrictions." I received one stupid answer that made my jaw drop, "Why will you let them invest in here? Only FDIs will get rich!" So says the person with very expensive taste. The person has a taste for imported luxury items. He goes out with people with expensive tastes.

I was reading about the news of how Apple would have a factory in Communist Vietnam. It's really ironic how some people I know who are anti-FDIs are using Apple luxury products. I even remembered one person I argued with (and trolled to expose his inconsistency) that he hates FDI while using an iPhone. I'm not too surprised to learn of some members of the CPP-NPA who are using MacPRO laptops. There are also people who are very much anti-FDI and are using imported devices, imported platforms, etc. in their rants (read here). I wouldn't be surprised if "thought leaders" like Bayan Muna, Kabataan Partylist, the League of Filipino Students, Migrante International, etc. have been using luxury products to spread their propaganda. Wait, aren't they supposed to be holding nationalistic views in favor of protectionism? That's why I think using social media (read the irony here) and blogging platforms to promote Pinoy Pride Economics is self-contradictory

I wouldn't be surprised if I'd catch these anti-FDI people shopping for imported luxury items. It might be the release of a brand-new iPhone or a new luxury bag. What happened to the call for Pinoy Pride economics? What happened to the call to support Filipino First? What happened to the teacher saying that so and so only buys local products as a character to develop? I could imagine if these same people who were saying, "Buy Pinoy! Support the economy! Down with America!" (in American-made social media) were ironically using an iPhone. Then they might say that they were only "forced to participate" in it? Was Apple (or any luxury brand company) forcing them to buy their products?!

This is why I can say it's frustrating to discuss economics with an overspender (read here). After all, budgeting money is also part of economics. If you studied basic middle school and high school economics, you may run into the truth that learning to save one's money is part of economics. You need to save more than you spend. For an overspender, the word budget hardly fits into their vocabulary. Why go abroad on an expensive trip if you've got heavy expenses? Why splurge the paycheck you just got when you've got other expenses? I guess for extravagant people, economics is a stranger to them. The word "economize" hardly exists in the vocabulary of extravagant people.

Filipino Manufacturing's Golden Age ENDED Because of the Filipino First Policy

Here's a picture from the Dose of Disbelief Page on Facebook. Here's something that it wrote: Filipinos once trusted locally made products more than imports. Before World War II, the label "Made in the Philippines" carried prestige, not stigma, reflecting a strong sense of national confidence in domestic production. Local products such as shoes, cigars, textiles, furniture, and food were often preferred over imports. This preference was rooted in the belief that local goods were better adapted to local conditions, tastes, and were often of comparable, if not superior, quality. This period showcases a strong historical era of consumer nationalism and thriving local industries. We need to look into the context of Filipino history If we look at the Philippine history timeline , we must account for 1935-1940, during which the Philippines was under the Commonwealth government. Independence was declared from Spain on June 12, 1898. However, there was a transition period w...

Having the BADLY NEEDED Tenacity to Hold My PSEi Related Investments During INEVITABLE Paper Losses

I decided to do a portfolio review, especially because Christmas to New Year is around the corner . I thought about checking my AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund. For the sake of confidentiality , I wouldn't give out the exact loss. I was tempted to sell my AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund (which was at a paper loss , not an actual loss) and go for cryptocurrency . However, after looking at the ghost of Quadriga-CX Crypto Scam made I said, "I need to stick to what Warren Buffett said about the stock market." Buffett's advice doesn't require an MBA or even a PhD in business administration to understand them. Instead, I was looking at these lessons that Buffett such as: If I'm not willing to open to own a stock for 10 minutes, I shouldn't think of owning it for ten years! Definitely no day trading for me! The stock market is a device that transfers money from impatient people to patient people. I have to be more patient as the stock market inevitably corrects itself, unless t...

External Validations, like Masters and Doctorate, Mean NOTHING with a LOUSY Education System

I have the tendency to use my MBA as a license to avoid criticism. It's a real problem that some people use their credentials and/or academic achievements to try and win an argument. One incident I wrote about was Rep. Raoul Abellar Manuel flexing his "smarts" by using his cum laude degree to win the argument . It was all about how I would often say, "You're the moron because I have the MBA and you don't." There are times I felt like taking an MBA would make up for my "moral shortcomings" during high school when I was barely passing (and the passing rate was 80% , which is rather high), that I wasn't having honors, and that there was this saying, " Thou grades shalt determine thy future! " That, of course, has led to the reality where cheating is prevalent . I wanted to make a review. I took my MBA in 2011 and graduated in 2014. I always felt that the MBA program was what I needed to become "invincible". It was also at ...

COMMUNIST Vietnam Has Defeated DEMOCRATIC Philippines Again This 2025

Cổng thông tin Trung ương Đoàn TNCS Hồ Chí Minh A few days ago, I wrote about warning Filipinos that they shouldn't wait for more unmitigated typhoon disasters, before realizing that the Filipino First Policy isn't working ! There's a statement that says, "Just because being tanga (inattentive) is libre (free), doesn't mean you should be tanga!" Analyzing the different policies: why policies matter I found a Business World article, written by Cesar Polvorosa, Jr., on my Facebook news feed discussing the Vietnamese economy . In fact, it would be better to share some hard truths that the article offers about what really went wrong with the democratic Philippines compared to Communist Vietnam : DIVERGENT ECONOMIC MODELS Vietnam pursued an export-oriented manufacturing strategy which has proven significantly more successful over the past half century than the Philippines’ service-heavy, remittances-dependent model . Export performance alone tells a compe...

Alice Guo's Conviction Should NEVER be a Call to Shut Down Constitutional Reform

The Alice Guo saga seems to have come to an end, right? That's, unless of course something happens and she escapes again. This always made me laugh when I realized that, as I was writing my articles, I came across a Vietnamese girl named Ha Thi Thu Trang, aka Ha Trang, who resembles Alice. Right now, Ha Trang could come to the Philippines for a vacation and not get mistaken for the same person. Back on the topic, I would like to point out that I actually wrote a post on whether or not using Alice's controversy should be a call to shut down constitutional reform . Alice's now in jail, what's next?! I would like to let people know in advance, I'm not here to demolish Senator Maria Theresa "Risa" Baraquel-Hontiveros' efforts in getting Alice arrested. In fact, I feel grateful (in part) that Risa managed to expose Alice's lies, along with Senator Sherwin "Win" Ting Gatchalian in exposing Alice's dubious records. However, I'm going to...

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