Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Cartoonist Zach Some people claim to fight for the working class--while refusing to work themselves. Some people claim to fight for the working class--while supporting policies that will prove detrimental to the working class. One of these policies is #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba--meaning to raise salaries and lower prices. I wrote some time ago about why #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba doesn't work . However, I'lm still attacked by Ad Homimens and Nom Sequiturs. How's that even possible anyway? Economics isn't magic! If President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr.'s promise of PHP 20.00 kilo rice is absurd--so is the promise of #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba economics!  Image by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020 I don't need a PhD in economics to understand cost accounting. The income statement would include salaries as part of the cost. The cost of goods sold includes salaries. Marketing and promotions include salaries. General and administrative would include salaries. Pa

Yesterday was the birthday of former president Carlos P. Garcia, who died in 1971. Garcia is often associated with the Filipino First Policy. Back in the 1990s, I remember how Filipino First Policy was taught in values education classes --never mind the glaring contradictions. The contradictions are that imported equipment was used, or that we can literally never escape the use of imported equipment. I wrote an article discussing why Garcia's Filipino First Policy has no place in the rising Asian Century . I haven't done academic work right now, having been disgruntled by the Filipino education system. Sadly, not even graduate school taught me the basics of stock market investment (such as equity funds) or how Cash 2 Go works. That's why some people say, "It's just a degree!" I often said, "Well your doctor went to college, your lawyer went to college, etc." However, it looks like a college degree may not be for everyone, under K+12!  Some people are

Disney Let's face it piracy is hard to combat, right? For Filipinos, it's time to be honest that people have been engaged in piracy in some form. It may be pirated video games, CDs, VCDs, DVDs, etc. There are laws passed against piracy. However, one must ask why piracy is so hard to combat. Piracy bypasses through legalities. It's a common practice to have a pirated version of this and that application, because of the price . Installing MS Office and Windows 11 can be costly. It can cost PHP 7,000.00 for Windows 11 Home and PHP 5,400.00 for MS Office. Back in college, people would do anything to get the MS Office and Windows 11 because they needed it for their projects . It doesn't help that some well-to-do boomer are stingy instead of thrifty. It doesn't help either that some people just can't afford to buy the original software--given their income bracket .  It's easy to raise the Filipino First Policy by saying, "Tangkilikin ang sariling atin!"

I wrote an opinion piece on  why I believe Adobe has gone too far . I can understand that Adobe was pirated (and it's almost close to impossible to combat piracy in developing countries, mind you). However, I believe that this practice might encourage more piracy in the long run. I was looking at Adobe's plans and my goodness, I have to pay every month to use it. Can a student or a teacher seriously afford the terms and services ? Paying USD 20.00 a month for Photoshop would be equivalent to PHP 1162.48 per month. As I was shocked at the subscription-only model--I decided to buy an Affinity license from Microsoft. I could care less if I had to buy a license now digitally. It's still worth it buying it at one shot (and buying additional content later, that is content that I want ) instead of having to pay Photoshop per month. I wonder if Adobe was intoxicated by its past successes. Adobe became a well-known name. I took a short-term course called Associate in Computer Scienc

Philippine Star Is it me or is the Christmas Season really that toxic in the Philippines? I wrote an article about the irony of early Christmas season with late Christmas shopping . I didn't think about writing this but is it me or do people like to ask for impunity during the Christmas season? Think about that toxic former friend or former romantic partner. You cut off that person because of the toxic behavior he or she shows. However, you meet at a public place during the -ber months. The person says, "Let's reconcile! It's Christmas!" I can be open to reconciliation with classmates with who I had a childish quarrel back in high school. So far, one of the people I had a childish grudge wasn't  a toxic person. The reason why I feel I can reconcile with that person is because he's productive . The same can't be said for people who have a toxic attitude.  What do several Filipinos look forward to during Christmas? Would it be just the spiritual signific

It's October 2024 and I had no topic to write about a few days ago. Today, I decided to write about how using personal attacks is a common tactic . The use of Ad Hominems or personal attacks is attacking the person instead of the argument. Such people don't care if they contradict themselves--as long as they can insult because they're losers . One of the things I noticed is how I discuss the laws of economics. However, I can get an answer like, "Muh supply and demand! Da conspiracy of supply and demand!" I purposely misspelled the words to show how the person's lack of knowledge and use of mockery. Such persons can repeatedly hurl insults like saying I'm stupid, room temperature IQ, fake IQ, traitor to my fellow Filipino, etc. The list can go on and it's both amusing and irritating to recall every bit of insult I've had. But as advised, I'm told to learn to ignore insults  or laugh at them. An anonymous quote, probably said by Socrates was, &qu

Manuel L. Quezon III"s Twitter Account Make no mistake that as a voter, I didn't vote for President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr., I'm not a Marcos loyalist, and I don't have any doubt about the well-documented assets that the Marcos Family has. However, there's a problem that Filipinos need to face. It's the fact it's already 2024 and some of them are still blaming Marcos for things he couldn't do! Come on, Marcos Sr. has been dead for 35 years! What can a dead person do to hurt the economy? I don't doubt that the Philippines wouldn't suffer much if the Marcoses didn't steal. However, we must look past the Marcos Wealth and the current cause.  I wrote an essay refuting the idea of a neoliberal regime during the first Marcos administration . One source I cited was a study from the UP School of Economics by Emmanuel S. De Dios, citing this: That argument might hold some plausibility if the economic record was brilliant to begi

First and foremost, I'd like to tell people that I don't believe that the Marcos Years were the "golden years". I still agree with economist Cielo Magno that land ownership isn't a factor, since some countries without equity restrictions, don't allow foreigners to buy land. In contrast, inflation and the like were rampant during that time. However, we need to realize that any gains after EDSA 1986 weren't realized. As I was looking at Facebook, a page called Punch the Lies by Atty. Mike Navallo stated this:  FACT: The 1987 Constitution does not prohibit entry of global investors into PH. What it regulates is foreign investment in areas deemed critical such as public utilities; exploration, devt and use of natural resources; and certain investments as determined by Congress. (Art XII)   Public utilities (water, electricity, petroleum distribution, seaports, PUVs) are considered vital to socio-economic devt that's why they're subject to foreign owner

Manuel L. Quezon III"s Twitter Account The first issue I've had is people saying on social media, "No to the parliamentary system because the first Marcos Administration was parliamentary!" It's really something because such people never bothered to do any further research. Please, knowledge isn't that expensive! Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr. even stated, "We had a parliamentary form of government without a parliament." Later on, even Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.'s own words showed that the Philippines was still presidential . Why would people still insist that it was a parliamentary form of government? Even more, I'm not surprised that some people are saying on Facebook, "Economic charter change is all about term extension." Even worse, it can be from the Philippine mass media. Sadly, the late Lee Kuan Yew was right to fall the Philippine press rambunctious in his book From Third World to First . I can refer the book t