The Bad Economics of Romanticizing Filipino "Resilience" (AKA Toxic Positivity)

Financially Fat

I was partly inspired by Odette to write this blog. It was during Odette that I realized (at a whole new level) that complacency is deadly. The picture above on the Financially Fat Facebook page may seem funny. However, this is also written on the Facebook page:

We’ve romanticized resilience for far too long.

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In the Philippines, or even in international media, “Filipino resilience” is often praised after every typhoon, flood, or crisis. Smiling through hardship. Laughing amidst loss. It sounds inspiring—until you realize it’s also become an excuse.

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An excuse for poor disaster response.

An excuse for subpar infrastructure.

An excuse to stop holding leaders accountable.

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We shouldn’t glorify the ability to endure what no one should be enduring in the first place.

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Resilience should not replace responsibility.

Hope should not replace action.

And smiles should not replace solutions.

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It’s time we stop clapping for survival—and start demanding systems that prevent the suffering in the first place.

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For everyone affected by the typhoon, stay safe and dry po. Praying for you all. 

If we define resilience, it's described as:

the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened

Resilience isn't a bad thing. However, the problem is when people become too resilient. A few years ago, I wrote a post talking about the stupidity of "Just add sugar." mentality. They could've thought that if life is bitter, then work so you can buy sugar. Instead, they have this saying, "If life is bitter, just add sugar." That's another reason why several Filipinos remain poor. In other situations, adding sugar to everything bitter can lead to problems like obesity and diabetes. 

Resilience was what helped Cebu rise up from two major storms. The first is Ruping (1990s) and Odette (last 2021). I remember months of repairing our house. After months, things started to return to normal. One thing was certain--resilience is but a part of the whole thing. One should bounce back and do something afterwards. 

Looking at what the Financially Fat Facebook page said, we make excuses. Excuses for poor disaster response (such as the Yolanda response), subpar infrastructure (a real problem that neither the late Benigno "Simeon" C. Aquino III nor Rodrigo R. Duterte, could fully address), and an excuse to stop holding leaders accountable (and maybe that's why they're against even amending the amendable 1987 Constitution of the Philippines).

Part 1: We're so used to being poor (or blaming the rich for why we're poor), why work?

Asian Center for Flood Control

Here's a picture from the Asian Center for Flood Control. The post may call it funny. I find these photos funny, but they're also disturbing at the same time. I remember running into some fat American on Facebook. As always, I will try not to mention names or screenshot the transactions. That annoying fat American even said, "Look how happy these people are." If I could recall correctly, the fat American displayed photos that would resemble this...

Daily Mail

This isn't the actual photo. I got the photo from the Daily Mail. What I want to point out is that if there's such a thing as hiding behind a smile. Sometimes, a person wants to appear strong even if something bad has happened. Some people say, "I'm just okay," to hide something like sickness or financial instability, or a bad combination of both. That deluded fat American may either be promoting poor policies in the Philippines for either (1) so he could continue to exploit gullible Filipinos (for his gain), or (2) he believes in the stupidity he's promoting. Either way, I really want to have that guy declared persona non grata for promoting stupid ideas to Filipinos!

There's the problem of being too comfortable in one's misery. As I try to look into that, there may be two problems worth highlighting. The first problem is one's too comfortable in one's poverty. The second problem is that one is too comfortable in blaming the rich for one's poverty. This reminds me that I wrote an article saying that the Philippines will never get richer by blaming its richer, Asian neighbors. 

Some people are too used to their lifestyles. There's really the routine of "utang (debt) is life". There's nothing wrong with borrowing money. However, borrowing more than what one can pay is truly stupid. Some people would prefer to go gambling instead of investing (read here). Gambling offers quick returns, but the trade-off is that you get quick losses. It's because the promise of instant riches is too good to be true. However, people are so addicted to the debt-driven lifestyle. That's why I say, "Why criticize the Marcoses for the national debt when you borrow money to live luxuriously?" This is for people who assume that I voted for President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.!

It's a fear of change, after all. I would agree that investing can be "boring". My current stock market investments (both in the Philippines and abroad) are through UITFs. I confess I placed some money and it's not exactly booming all that much. I'm seeing boom, but it's nowhere near as thrilling or fast as cryptocurrency or gambling. I've heard how cryptocurrency rises so fast and crashes so fast, it's like a rollercoaster ride. People ignore the trade-offs in exchange for thrills. That's why it's hard to move away from a gambling lifestyle to an investing lifestyle. 

I feel these repeated patterns of foolishness are all in the name of resilience. Here are a few instances that truly highlight this "resilience". Be aware, you could be in this situation or several of these:

1. You keep losing at your gambling, but you keep gambling anyway, in the name of resilience.
2. You keep day trading in stocks (rather than investing in stocks) despite the fact that you keep losing a lot of money.
3. You keep investing in cryptocurrency, even if it's really not investing, because of resilience.
4. You keep living a pattern of a debt-driven lifestyle, you keep getting chases by the bank and/or loan sharks, but you keep living it anyway. It feels so good to blame the Marcoses for natiomal debt but not blame yourself for your own debts, right?

Part 2: We're so used to the Filipino First Policy, why get rid of it?

It's been decades since the Filipino First Policy took effect. Mind you, the real outcome was that it caused the Philippines to fail. Sure, we're not in Venezuela-like levels. However, the Philippines should never wait until it becomes another Venezuela. Anyway, this reminds me of the mindset of Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr., and why I'm bringing up other grandfathers, into the equation. I ended up writing about who Filipinos should listen to between Davide (who's turning 90 this year) and Mahathir Mohamad (who is 10 years older than Davide). Davide keeps insisting that he will object to any attempt to even amend the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. Did Davide even forget that Article XVII exists for a reason? That's why whenever Davide talks, I always raise another grandfather.

Some people are too comfortable with how the late Carlos P. Garcia is hailed as the "most illustrious son of Bohol." However, surprise, surprise, or not, DepEd textbooks (back in my day, it was DECS) are really full of errors. That might be the reason why some teachers eventually stop teaching. Many times, the Filipino First Policy is written as a miracle. However, we think of the reality that the Filipino First Policy only sets the Philippines, for more failure. In fact, people who support it are still "too beholden" to the "infallibility" of the DepEd textbooks! In fact, school has become a routine of memorizing and passing exams. In short, we're grading students based more on what they memorize rather than grading them based on their learning. 

Philippine Star

One instance of such "resilience" is that Filipinos have become too accustomed to the OFW life. Just for a bit of details. The Marcos Years helped create the OFW phenomenon. The IBON Foundation keeps insisting that the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was a neoliberal. However, the UP School of Economics has Emmanuel S. De Dios, debunking that claim, at least indirectly. Back on topic, we seriously need to look into the OFW "resilience". Have people become so used to that certain family member (not necessarily the parents) who flies abroad to work abroad, while the rest of the family stay in the Philippines? Even worse, this has created what I wrote about as a destructive obsession with OFW remittances. People are so used to the lifestyle that there's this "bagong bayani" (new hero/heroine) who flies off abroad, remits in foreign currency, and so on. 

Calling OFWs as the "bagong bayani" may have added another layer to this "resilience". People got so used to finding jobs abroad, they don't even want to bring jobs to the Philippines. It's crazy how leftist groups such as Makabayan or the NGO group Migrante International have bases in first-world countries. This reminds me of that bratty Facebook page called the Philippine Anti-Fascist League. Thankfully, the first version is down, and the second version barely gets interactions. I remember the page glorifying Anakbayan Melbourne, calling them out for their contradiction. Hate FDI but having a base in a country that benefits from it? Either these guys don't understand what they're doing or they oppose FDI in the Philippines, because they'll lose their spotlight in complaining. It's probable they want to keep the problem going, so they can always look good to the public.

Has it become the norm that Filipinos would prefer the OFW culture over letting FDIs in, so they don't have to leave for abroad? Apparently, there's some glamor in bragging that a certain kamag-anak (relative) is nag-aabroad (going abroad). It's like, "We salute (insert relative) because he's/she's finally going abroad to rake in dollars." 

Which of course, this resilience has a high socio-economic cost. A good example is the late Flor Contemplacion's family. Flor Contemplacion Crybabies are still spreading the same lies for 30-beyond years now (read here). Some people are too used to that same narrative, no matter how false it is. Back on the high socio-economic cost, we have plenty of Filipinos who are forced to separate from their loved ones, even if said family relationship was supposedly harmonious (read here). Flor may be guilty of murder. However, we can never discount that her husband, Efren Contemplacion, had an extramarital affair, while Flor was working in Singapore. 

Closing words

All these years of bragging about "resilience" aren't working, in the long run. Think about what could've been prevented if one wasn't resilient. Think about if one lost one's sight permanently when the problem could've been fixed earlier. If you're romanticizing this so-called resilience, it's time to think about has toxic positivity, ever been any better than toxic negativity. Both are equally misguided!