Buwan Ng Wika (Month of the Language) may not be Buwan Ng Produkto (Month of the Product). I'm going to continue indirectly targeting this fat whiner I dub as Porky Madugo. A lot of Porky's statements on his Facebook account (which I will not link here to avoid getting personal or giving him any more clout) are just plain ignorant or he knows he's lying. One of the statements that Porky said something like this:
To all the inattentive people who push for FDI (foreign direct investment), why are you relying on foreigners to have a better economy in the Philippines?
Why don't we just strive to work to improve our economy? Don't keep complaining that the 1987 Constitution is already old and that we need FDI.
All you do is rely on foreigners. You are all rocks! Work and don't dilly dally in your jobs. You are not given mininum wage just to be inattentive.
Once again, Porky has his stupid argument based on Pinoy Pride Economics. A few days ago, I wrote an article discussing the Filipino vs. foreigner false dichotomy. Since when did liking something foreign equal to rejecting what is Filipino? Please, this Buwan ng Wika, do some research, go to a museum, and find out that Filipino culture evolved through foreign influence. One of Porky's friends, who I'll dub as Mukhang Adik (Looks Like an Addict) said something like this:
We can have Filipino investors who will accumulate capital for Filipino entrepreneurs. It's not about that Foreign D*ck Injection.
The statement is flat-out ignorant. Since when did FDI mean or involve Filipinas having sexual relations with foreigners? Getting a sugar daddy foreigner isn't an FDI according to any business dictionary! This definition from the Investopedia should prove them wrong:
Foreign investment involves capital flows from one country to another, granting the foreign investors extensive ownership stakes in domestic companies and assets. Foreign investment denotes that foreigners have an active role in management as a part of their investment or an equity stake large enough to enable the foreign investor to influence business strategy. A modern trend leans toward globalization, where multinational firms have investments in a variety of countries.
Given those fools' suggestions, I wonder if they're actually willing to open their own businesses to provide employment for Filipinos? It's funny that they should be making their statements on
Facebook. Even funnier if they're actually using iPhones to do it as if the free market doesn't have a wide variety of choices on mobile phones!
In their quest for a self-industrialized nation, they need to prove it first with a self-industrialized business with what they want
Of course, I do get crazy answers when I ask, "Are you sure all your equipment are made in the Philippines?" I get the mocking response of, "Oh no! Not that question again! When will you (insert insult) ever realize we have no choice because the evil foreigners and capitalists own the means of production and equipment?" However, by buying these products in the
free market, aren't they financing or giving bullets to the foreigners and capitalists they hate so much? It becomes a problem when one can't really find a
single proudly Filipino-made equipment in the Philippines (read
here).
These fools who oppose FDI on the grounds of Pinoy Pride Economics are also proponents of #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba economics. That is, advocating that salaries must be increased while the final cost must be decreased. It's theoretically possible to eventually do that under economies of scale or when the cost of production gets lower, and salary can be increased to a certain extent. However, given the supply and demand--the cost of production is still overall higher. A high demand for utilities with a low supply means higher costs. A high supply of labor and low demand for labor means lower salaries. It doesn't get a PhD in economics from the hard-to-enter schools in the Philippines to understand those basic concepts. Those concepts have been taught in high school and in college--even before K+12. Now with K+12, what excuse do Filipinos have to lack the grasp of basic economics?!
That's why
I wrote about opening #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba stores. Proponents of Pinoy Pride Economics should show for themselves that the model
works. The proposal is to open a business where rice is sold at PHP 20.00 per kilo (something that's impossible for now due to supply and demand) and they give a salary of PHP 750.00 per day. They should sell
cheaper than the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) and give employees a salary of PHP 750.00 per day. While I wrote that post on #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba stores, I was laughing thinking because they might even use the airconditioner 24-7 when they can't afford it! Why get an airconditioner if you can't afford higher electricity? Apparently, for them, economics is just a game of numbers and not a domino. One wrong economic move can devastate the economy, just like the Great Depression or the Great Leap Forward. However, some of these fools ironically defend Mao Zedong and Karl Marx, both
foreigners.
Their business model should also create a business where the workers own the means of production (read
here). Never mind that the workers didn't bring their own equipment, didn't buy the equipment, and that in a business model, the business gets the
biggest share of liability when things go south. Why are they willing to own the means of production but not share in the consequences if a bad decision is made? Do these people even realize that employees are given their
salaries and that profits are what's left after
all expenses? Revenues and profits
aren't the same thing! Come on, even basic accounting procedures are being ignored by Pinoy Pride Economics proponents!
At this point, they should start opening their business. If their businesses succeed, all calls to open up the economy to more FDI will be canceled and the Philippines can become an isolationist state. If they can turn the Philippines into a model ASEAN nation through #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba stores--I will definitely support them. Until then, they need to prove their point once and for all. They need to publish their study and show it to schools like the National University of Singapore and the University of Economics-Ho Chi Minh City. If not, they're just nothing more than proof of the old proverb, "The empty container makes the most noise!"
