Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Moving.com I've seen some posts on Facebook where they actually glorify the mass murderer Mao Zedong. One of their excuses to love Mao was the death of landlords, never mind that Mao's plan for a "Great Leap Forward" came to a crash under his rule. They keep saying that landowners are evil, that it's one of the "easiest jobs in the world". What they don't realize is that being a landowner isn't an easy task. I would like to give out my thoughts (and I'm a landowner too) as to why being a landowner isn't as easy as these social media whiners think. From Moving.Com , we can read of the eight landlord obligations that show why being a landowner is never as easy as these social media whiners think: Offer a  fair housing environment To deliver the unit as scheduled to the prospective tenant Properly manage the security deposit Ensure one has a copy of the lease (and following it) Properly maintain the rental property (which requires a lot of m

Taiwan News It may be news from 2018 (meaning, five years ago) but as a person who sees the importance of Mandarin in the international market, I still want to react. Not surprisingly, Yeh Yi Jin lost the Tainan mayoral bid because of her controversial statement to abolish Zhuyin from Taiwan altogether . She may have lost the race but I'm still supporting her for this. It's not because I kept failing hard in Zhuyin back in my days. It's because I feel that as time goes on, some things need to be dropped like asking students to submit their reports written via typewriter or asking documents to be faxed when email (and modern standard mail) are more reliable. Like I argued with an investment before, I said, "You can't fax a book. Can I just mail it?" The bank kept arguing it had to be faxed. Unfortunately stubborn boomers, stubborn boomers, everywhere, right? From The Free China Post , this is what's said about Yeh's argument: Yeh argues that using zhuyi

CoRRECT Movement It's very easy to talk about freedom not only during June 12 (which became the new Philippine Independence Day celebration as declared by the late Diosdado Macapagal) but also during Buwan ng Wika. The Buwan ng Wika programs tend to emphasize freedom from Spanish Empire, from the Japanese Empire, and how the Philippines got its freedom after 10 years under the Commonwealth Government. There's always the statement of the Philippines is the freest country. People tend to say that freedom was restored after the EDSA Revolution toppled the protectionist regime of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. I even remembered Filipino maids saying what makes the Philippines a great place to live in is because of  freedom . Freedom is a good thing, and democracy is a good thing, but what about the priorities? Is democracy really all that's needed to progress? That's a very good question to ask since while freedom is indeed wonderful, it can also be misused and abused . 

As a person who grew up in the 1990s, some parents considered the PC to be an "unnecessary luxury", as if it was like the latest video game console of that time. That's pretty much a categorical error. I remembered the typewriter which I call that paper-eating monster . One of the comments that some boomer parents make is, "You're just lazy! Back in our day, we used typewriter!" It can get worse when they start setting their own milestones as "standards of excellence". Well, many 19-20 year old people will be looking for their college degrees. What's to be proud about starting early if you didn't do much?  In high school, I even remembered having to write a journalism report with a typewriter. It was because we ran out of ink. Again, the same classic complain by "excellent parents" is, "Use a typewriter! Don't be lazy!" With the standards having been raised, would one want to go gardening with faulty tools ? Would on

Archives Online Today is Singapore Day. I guess it's not surprising that there will be more people still crying over the death (and "unjust execution") of Flor Contemplacion. Back then, the late former Philippine president Fidel V. Ramos nearly cut ties with Singapore until the forensic results came out. Not everyone was all too happy as some people still made Flor a "heroine" and a movie about her was made. FVR reestablished ties during the reign of former Singaporean prime minister Goh Chok Tong. The late Lee Kuan Yew in his autobiography didn't only talk about the Marcoses (and sadly, some people just cherry-pick that and forget the more important lessons ). It also talked about the problems that hit the late former Philippine president Maria Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.  LKY talked about how Mrs. Aquino herself was meant to work up the people's feelings. What LKY also highlighted was the endless coups that hit Mrs. Aquino. What I find interesting is how

I remember being introduced to more of Pinyin in college. It was a Chinese language electorate class for at least one semester . I wished that the course required two consecutive foreign language classes to build the basics even more. The teacher taught us Pinyin with the Bopomofo sequence. Until now, I still prefer to use the Bopomofo sequence because it's more rhythmic and easier to memorize. I don't like the new method which uses the 23 initials-24 finals method (read here ). Because of that, I still call Pinyin "Bopomofo" in almost every conversation , even with Chinese language teachers! One of the things I would say is, "We have a new kind of Bopomofo." The older ones said, "Did the Zhuyin table change?" My answer is. "No, I'm talking about Pinyin." A Chinese language teacher might say, "We don't use Bopomofo. We use Pinyin now. Say Pinyin, not Bopomofo." Yet, I can't resist calling it Bopomofo because Pinyin i

Here's a photo that I found on New Money Blog on Instagram. School is almost ready to resume and the big question can be, "Do you have money to pay for tuition fees?" I wrote some articles related to that such as about payday euphoria before the long weekend , one's definition of savings , and the Philippine holiday debt trap . Some people today believe that the "best solution" is to raise salaries. However, raising salaries during inflation  will worsen  inflation (read here ). By now, I should realize basic IQ in business and economics is a real problem in the Philippines. I don't expect troll pages on Facebook to even develop a business IQ.  It's true that people with a higher income have a higher advantage. That's why some people seek to work in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centers. Others even seek to move abroad (which is caused by rampant economic protectionism). Some people believe that if they have a higher income then certainly th