Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

A really disastrous decision! Before the Buwan ng Wika ends, I want to write about those who have been demanding "Sahod itaas! Presyo ibaba!" (Raise salaries, lower prices). Back in 2022, I wrote an article discussing why the demands for higher salaries, lower prices of goods, and handouts for all are a recipe for disaster . I could laugh at people who believed in the promise of PHP 20.00 per kilo of rice promise of Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Before that, people had been demanding #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba during the reigns of the late former president Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III and former president Rodrigo R. Duterte.  Image by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020 I did explain why the model doesn't work. In the cost of production, you need to account for everything that happens including salaries . Raising salaries during inflation can actually worsen the situation . It's because sticky inflation happens with cost-push factors (ex. cost of gasoline, co

It's National Heroes Day, right? Three years ago, my life almost came to a halt and it was worsened by Odette. It was a good thing that I was already vaccinated twice before Odette came in 2021 . I remembered how some business establishments in Cebu City, Philippines, helped in the COVID-19 relief operation. One of those I remembered was Cherry's the Spice on the way to Talamban, Cebu City. Cherry's the Spice was among those who participated in the frontline when they gave food to the military and medical personnel. ABACA Group also gave some food to the health workers. Little India Healthy Cuisine also gave some vegetarian food to hospital workers. It was a difficult time and I had to learn to ration food at that time. I would eat whatever was available. There were also foreign food companies that helped in the pandemic. We also can't discount the employees who helped distribute the food. Without employees, a company can never move forward and employers owe them their

If there's any reason why some people are angry with the rich--it's because of rich people who look down on the poor. Some people are born rich without knowing the struggles of the one who originally acquired the wealth. Some rich parents make the fatal mistake of making their children feel entitled. Meanwhile, some rich parents make their children do the right thing by not waiting until things get too far. Some rich parents end up making their children attend middle-class schools, do summer jobs, work as employees in their own businesses, and teach them the value of wealth, especially by narrating the struggles before they got wealthy. In looking for a business partner, I feel it's very important to look at the attitude of these people. How do they treat people who do menial work? I could imagine looking forward to a business contract. However, it turns out that the potential business partner is a spoiled brat . Maybe, it's already a red alarm if I'm invited to an

  It's really very very easy to use insults instead of getting the facts straight, right? I will admit that it's that easy to use insults to try and win an argument as much as it's easy to blow off one's cool when insulted. These kinds of people are very good at insulting others but will cry foul (and play the "poor innocent victim") when their own personal attacks fire back at them. I could read all the gaslights and virtue signaling. Even worse, these people engage in very pseudo-intellectual arguments which can be displayed often on Facebook and Twitter (which is very toxic these days) just to name a few. The MARITES Pyramid of Learning  An essay I wrote was about the MARITES Pyramid of Learning . I've engaged with people who, when their appeal to emotion fails, start mocking me by calling me vulgar names or saying that I'm stupid, that my IQ must be low, that I must still be stuck in elementary, and the list can go on. I used to get irritated. Ther

I remembered writing about those obsolete Chinese textbooks that can never be used for the Asian Century . I'll flat-out admit (now) that one reason why I hated studying Chinese (or school, in general) is how robotic school teaches you to be. It's funny how parents demand academic excellence and then wonder why the initiative of the child is killed off. In the past Chinese education, the big problem was memorizing and memorizing without understanding. We called these memorizations both biak diam (recitation) and biak sia (written memorization). However, these never taught you how to speak--only memorize. Teachers can talk day in and day out about how Mandarin is the second most widely spoken language. However, giving information just doesn't help if too much memorization is the focus. It wasn't until college that I found memorization meaningful because memorizing the English meaning was absolutely needed . What's even worse is some people have their Chinese diploma

ResearchGate August 22 is the birthday of the great economic reformer, the late Deng Xiaoping. Previously, I wrote about how the Philippines will never get richer by blaming its richer ASEAN neighbors . I decided to write this piece since some SJWs who associate with Communism tend to blame the rich . He was also the author of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Instead of rich-shaming, he said what might be a very difficult pill to swallow by SJWs, "Poverty isn't socialism. To be rich is glorious."  It's very easy to blame others, right? One of the follow-ups I wrote was how blaming the rich will never improve your situation . It's very easy to keep saying, "It's the fault of the rich that we are poor." It's the kind of reaction that I got in college after I told them something stinging like, "Your financial habits make you poor." I also said, "Do you ever wonder why, we, as a country don't improve?" Back then, I was

Finding anti-capitalist (or better said, anti-business) wokes on Facebook (of all places) is just plain funny. Maybe, the term socialist isn't so negative since the late Lee Kuan Yew considered himself a socialist, the late Deng Xiaoping is the author of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and Vietnam still considers itself as a socialist country. The picture above this paragraph says that landlords and stock traders allegedly "contribute absolutely nothing to society". I feel compelled to write a bit of a post since, as a business graduate, I do feel insulted. Then again even if I didn't get an MBA--I do still feel insulted myself! How good landlords contribute to society   Landlords are often said to be a blight. Some say that it's the "easiest job in the world". However, managing real estate (especially rentals ) isn't as easy as some think. I wrote an essay as to why being a landowner isn't as easy as some people think . I would like to d