Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Tax season can be stressful. I think about how easy it becomes to overlook certain stuff. One can be distracted by either happy events or sad events. I remember how I accidentally signed the wrong document when my paternal grandmother died of old age. I remember how I could easily forget receipts until I started to document them. Memory should be the least reliable tool ever. I tend to get mad whenever I become forgetful. We end up excessively scolding others for their bad memory. I even end up either (1) scolding others too hard, or (2) being too hard on myself. That's why I've grown critical of the education system itself. Just imagine that even honor roll students are forgetting what they learned back in high school. Right now, I even have to download notes to relearn stuff that I learned in college . This may be the best picture for college, especially for those without a board exam. I didn't take the board exam since I'm a business administration graduate. I confes...

I found this meme on Facebook. Fortunately, there's already an attribution on the picture. In my case, I prefer to say, "Continuous improvement is better than expecting sudden perfection." It's because perfectionism is lethal, and we're all but human beings. As the midterm elections come in, there are still people who may either be (1) reminiscing that "perfect leader" (ex. Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, etc.) or (2) still expecting the perfect leader.  It's sad some people still believe in the old lie repeated all over again, "It's not the system that's the problem. It's the people that's the problem." They still wait for this "grand glorious leader". That's why I often joke on Facebook saying, "Why don't you create this perfect leader so I too may follow him to victory!" Of course, there's no perfect leader, and trying to genetically engineer that...

The Facebook group "Stop Blaming Capitalism for Socialism's Failures" is now plagued with Anonymous Participant posts. It's probably because they could no longer defend themselves. Anyway, let's think of the fallacy of this thinking. I'd like to point out that people get rich from the net profit --not from the sales. People should stop confusing sales for profits! Business & Plans If we look at that sample income statement, we look at how the coffee shop operates. Let's use the USD currency over the PHP, even if I'm a Filipino . The reason is that the sample income statement is from an American website. If we look at the income statement--we have sales deducted from the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), and every other expenses. SG&A means selling , general , and administrative expenses--which involves paying the coffee growers, the coffee refiners, the coffee packers, and the coffee brewers. The person who runs the coffee shop is involved in the chai...

Tech Republic As Christmas is almost near (and I hate the Christmas season in the Philippines but not Christmas itself), I think of why working on papers and shopping from September up to December is a hassle . I hear the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" at all. However, it's ironic that Christmas starts early but Christmas shopping is delayed until the last minute (read here ). One of the biggest problems that cause shopping (or any transaction for that matter) to become a hassle is AIDS. No, I'm not talking about the AIDS virus but an Internet slang called As If Doing Something. I learned the term during my MBA days. Part of me is wondering, "Was it worth it to get an MBA in the Philippines?" It's because I never learned how to invest in an index fund in school  but through reading Warren Edward Buffett! I remember some of the worst things in my college days. Some people say, "I'm busy!" in the Cebuano dialect. I update...

It's been some time since Jesse M. Robredo died too soon. Hopefully, his wife Atty. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo is true to her word, in her willingness to amend the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, for the sake of foreign investments. It's a shame I never wrote about the late great man. The CoRRECT Movement on Facebook gave this important note on Robredo's life. Robredo said, "It's not enough for an official to be good. There has to be a system that forces them to be good." Whether or not Robredo was for charter change or a few constitutional amendments, I can't tell. For some racists, let me remind them that Robredo's real surname is Lim  and his paternal grandfather is the late Lim Pay Co.  In terms of Robredo's credentials (and I tend to sometimes brag about the credentials of those I quote), here's what the City Government of Naga website says: He is an Edward Mason Fellow and a graduate of Masters in Public Administration at the John...

  2023 is about to end and it's going to be  2024  any time soon. It's very easy to talk about  New Year's Resolutions  but why is system change hardly discussed? I run into people on Facebook who love to say, "It's just common sense that it's the people, not the system, that's the problem." That's the  wrong type of thinking  that hits people whether it's business or politics. I would like to discuss how systems affect business. Back then, I was challenged, "If you manage the business, can you do better?" My only answer is, "There's no guarantee." What I should've said is, "We must create a system for the business that will force anyone, not just me, to do better." We need to define what a system is  Does a system really matter? If you look at the definition of what a system is in this context, I can give the definition from the  Merriam-Webster Dictionary : 1 :  a regularly interacting or interdependent g...

It's really funny (and frustrating) to see all the posts on Facebook concerning inflation. "Thought leader" page Silent No More Philippines is just one of them. I couldn't help but laugh (and cringe) when they started complaining about the prices of goods increasing. Unfortunately, that page is only known for complaining since the reign of former Philippine president, Rodrigo R. Duterte and the recent reign of Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Once again, I'd like to state that I didn't vote for Marcos Jr. The problem with that page isn't their criticism. The problem is that the page hardly displays solutions. In fact, recent posts that they have complained about inflation and the increase in price of Jollibee fast food makes me ask, "Do they know a thing about supply chain management ?" That's why I really refuse to take advice from social media gossipers, especially in matters about economics (read here ). ScienceDirect.com I dec...

Another ongoing nonsense by leftists is that the workers, not the entrepreneurs, are the ones who own the means of production. This would be complete nonsense spreading on social media. Having graduated from the College of Commerce (now the School of Business and E conomics ) makes me cringe at the idea. I've had some business marketing classes, accounting classes, and operations management classes which can help refute this idea. I keep hearing, "If only the poor will unite altogether--you rich are no more." Well, let's try and think about how the idea of workers, not entrepreneurs, owning the means of production can't work. Defining what capital really means Image by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020 The sample income statement by Investopedia tells you the capital. Capital is defined by the Investopedia as: Capital is a broad term that can describe any thing that confers value or benefit to its owner, such as a factory and its machinery, intellectual property l...