Photo from lookingforwinona.tumblr.com
Let’s do a head-to-head matchup! Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is leading in the polls among possible senatoriables for the coming midterm elections, versus Baldomero Falcone, a two-time candidate for the Senate who has lost on both tries. Has Falcone served as an executive in a local government? No. Has Falcone served in the legislature? No. Does Falcone take Fentanyl? I’m not sure, maybe he doesn’t. Duterte, on the other hand, gets a yes on every point! Woo-hoo! Vote for Duterte! So why can’t we just give, say, a million Duterte votes to Falcone and shave off another million votes from each of the other top candidates in the Magic 10 to give Falcone a fair shot at winning a senate seat? For our bleeding-heart senators who have voted to increase the minimum wage by Php100 across the board, isn’t that pretty much the same concept? It is essentially the concept of redistribution of wealth! If we take from someone who produces to give to someone who doesn’t, or at least who doesn’t produce as much, you’re going to incentivize less production.
Duterte lackey and self-professed social justice advocate, senator Bong Go, stated:
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“Mr. President, dapat po talaga ay may maayos na pasahod sa mga ordinaryong manggagawang Pilipino. It is the goal of this measure to provide for a living wage that allows our Filipino workers to earn enough for a satisfactory standard of living and prevent them from falling into poverty.
“Moreover, as an advocate of social justice, I just want to reiterate the importance of striking a balance between the interest of the employers and workers. Dapat po ay may pantay ding pagkilala sa karapatan at kapakanan ng lahat ng sektor sa lakas-paggawa.
“Sa mga mayayaman, kung di naman kayo malulugi, ipamahagi niyo naman po ang kita ninyo sa mga mahihirap — sa mga isang kahig, isang tuka, na bawat piso po ay napakahalaga na meron pong pambili ng pagkain, na may laman po ang tiyan sa araw-araw.
Translated:
“Mr. President, there should really be a proper wage for ordinary Filipino workers. It is the goal of this measure to provide for a living wage that allows our Filipino workers to earn enough for a satisfactory standard of living and prevent them from falling into poverty.
“Moreover, as an advocate of social justice, I just want to reiterate the importance of striking a balance between the interest of the employers and workers. There should also be equal recognition of the rights and welfare of all sectors in the workforce.
“To the rich, if you are not losing money, distribute your income to the poor – to those who have a one scratch, one peck type of life, that every peso is very important to buy food, that has a full stomach everyday.”
Wow! Bravo! Maybe senator Go should have proceeded in running for president in the last elections! So, will raising the minimum wage by Php100 really be the answer to alleviate many Filipinos out of poverty? Would raising the minimum wage to a “living wage” standard increase the per capita income of Filipinos?
When I was still in Environmental Engineering school, I heard a saying, in jest, that goes: “The solution to pollution is dilution!” The idea is that the concentration count of sh*t (coliforms) in a water sample would decrease if you increased the volume of water. You know what? That is true! You will see a decrease in coliform concentration count! But are we really eliminating the sh*t in the water and the underlying cause of why we are even getting sh*t in the water? This is precisely what our bleeding-heart senators are doing. They want to artificially raise the income per capita by hiking the minimum wage but that doesn’t even address poverty or why we have a miserable labor market! Why isn’t there enough job demand that pays this “living wage” to meet the available supply of labor in our country? We have so many able-bodied people available to work but not enough jobs that offer this supposed living wage!
Well, I believe former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once told a former economics student of hers, “It’s the Economy, Student!”
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, more than 90% of business in the country are classified as “Micro enterprise” and this is followed by almost 9% classified under “Small enterprise”. So, we are dealing with many family-owned, mom and pop type of businesses and operations that will probably take a huge hit in profit margins should this wage hike push through that would increase their overhead cost. With higher overhead costs, many businesses would tend to resort to creative ways to keep their losses at a minimum. If they do not end up closing shop, some businesses may reduce their workforce. Another way to cut losses due to labor cost is to resort to schemes that will allow them to avoid paying benefits and things like the 13th month pay. Endo, does that ring a bell? Of course, the most common way for businesses to cut their losses is to pass the added cost to the consumers through price hikes for the goods and services they produce. What do we call the measure when prices of goods and services rise over time? That is correct – INFLATION! Now guess what happens when inflation catches up with the government-imposed wage increase? The wage increase loses its effect and who gets to suffer the most in this situation? The informal sector, precisely because they don’t receive any wage increases because they don’t have actual employers mandated to give them a minimum wage to begin with! These are the poorest of the poor these politicians love to pander to and give doleouts like the 4Ps to! Is it any wonder why we have a huge underemployment problem? Is it any wonder why the prices of goods and services keep on rising and many Filipinos in the country’s labor force cannot escape from Endo? It seems like we have a bunch of economic Einsteins in the senate and a bunch of economic Darwin award recipients among the electorate who love voting for these types of senatorial clowns!
Depending on the region, the minimum wage in the Philippines ranges from Php341 to Php610 per day. If we embrace the sentiments of self-professed social justice advocates like senator Bong Go, in providing a satisfactory standard of living for Filipino workers, why just increase the minimum wage by Php100? Why not by Php1,000? Php10,000 even? Heck, the senators can legislate a minimum wage of Kardashian proportions, but the fact is, it really doesn’t matter because the hike won’t make food, tuition fees, medical bills, and oil prices cheaper and Endo will still be around!
So, the rich should redistribute their income to the poor, as the good and brilliant Davao senator said? So basically, if you have a bit more, you should give it to someone who has a bit less. Now, that is fine and dandy if this is something voluntary. However, if this is through legislation, it has the force of law! The bill actually describes fines of Php25,000 to Php100,000, or with imprisonment of between 2-4 years, as well as award of back pay for employers violating the law. So essentially, the government is forcing employers to give more of their profits under the threat of monetary consequences and imprisonment. What happens when we force the reduction of profits from businesses? It results in the business having less, or even nothing, to invest with in developing and expanding their business. So, the incentive for businesses to hire more people gets reduced.
While it may sound noble and compassionate for these legislators to improve the financial lives of the people, as we have seen many times over, these populist laws that the legislators impose on people are often the cause of our economic problems! If senator Go wants the rich to redistribute their wealth to the poor, maybe he can get his friend, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, to fork out maybe 35% of his wealth to the poor when he meets this “Appointed Son of God” in the senate on March 5, during which the pastor is scheduled to appear to answer the allegations against him for human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence, and other abuses. Or maybe Go himself can voluntarily give out 35% of his wealth to the poor! Hey, his benefactor, former president Duterte says Go is a billionaire! The good senator doesn’t need that much, right? How about the rest of the senators who voted for the measure? Will they fork over 35% of their millions or even billions to the poor? Yah, I am not holding my breath on that.
Calling a spade, a spade…
If you want a better future, just emigrate to better countries like Japan, Australia, New Zealand and powerful Western countries when you can. Philippine politics is not about service, it’s a highly lucrative business of politicians who prioritize their self-interests above anything else. Why do people even trust that the senate will do something good? This batch of the senate is the worst. All they do is grandstand, show their sheer arrogance and verbally abuse resource persons. What they do in most of their senate hearings are no different from witch hunt, so if you consider these facts combined with their sheer incompetence and absence of honor, we can expect that they didn’t study the minimum wage increase and they have no plan to make it work for good. They probably just passed it and called it a day.
The ultra rich make their wealth from the high consumption and jacked up prices of goods and services. The entrepreneurial and the worker class are chasing numbers where there is no boundary or end. Does the economic imbalance justify the act of allowing people to drown in a state of poverty? I honestly think the problem is that we’ve lost a sense of proportion, hence a sense of reality. As the saying goes: that which is not good for the hive cannot be good for the bees. The failure of the hive will ultimately result in an arrest and disarming of those who have illusions of power. There is no way around that kind of redistribution.
I like the article, but as I have always argued: The best thing to do for the country is to implement a progressive taxation. The widest shoulders should carry the heaviest loads. Meaning the rich should pay higher tax rates than the poor. Then the government can afford other crucial things like better quality education sector.
When that said a minimum wage hike is a good thing; The phenomenon of working poor can only be a bad thing.
Taxes dont work in the Philippines. This is obvious to anyone. If a government cannot provide the basics of an economy like quality roads which lead to an efficient economy there is zero reason to provide any money to said government.
The Philippines is a country with great people who pick the worst politicians…
and that is probably never going to change.
It goes two ways: a government cannot provide the basics of an economy without revenue from taxes. But then you are also right about picking the worst politicians.
the money is there.
we just need better planners.
coz the bureaucrats we have now are either dumb as f*ck or tricky as circus gypsies
politicians are a given – most of whom are useless hacks and blabbering fools, who do no work but take all the credit.
its actually the civil service that needs to improve
how can the civil service be improved without money?!!
I meant how can the civil service be improved without MORE money than it already have?!!
the money is there
civil servants already make even twice more than their counterprts in the private sector.
better system,commitment, attitude, competence
@megget
“better system,commitment, attitude, competence”
Doesn’t it require better education sector and etc. (hence money) to better these?
no, our civil servants are actually over educated.
a bunch of these mofos take up law and have mba’s
@megget
Then how can we “better system,commitment, attitude, competence” without more money?
“no, our civil servants are actually over educated.”
Over-educated depends on what job position we are talking about.
fancy degrees are often a hindrance.
lawyers cant wrap their legalese heads around the traffic problem, yet theyre heading traffic management offices at major cities everywhere.
the modern world was built by people without certificates or fancy degrees
what you need more is common sense and dogged determination
@megget
Fancy degress are only a hindrance if they are not backed up by high quality educational background. When it is so often that people manage to get multiple phd or master degrees like it is in Ph then it shows that the quality of it is low. It’s too easy to get a master degree in Ph; Is my assumption.
How can the people get more “common sense and dogged determination”?
So far you have not answered my questions!
opinions are free,
but solutions come for a fee.
Many may have “education” but they are not wise; they are not intelligent; they’re ‘educated.’
@Delacruzy
What makes them not wise and not intelligent? How can they be wiser and more intelligent?
Thats the questions that need to be answered.
an example is in building permits.
after filing at the building official, you have to go over to get the clearance from bureau of fire.
why cant you just submit the documents, then the OBO talks to the fire inspector.
in fact, why cant OBO just get their own fire inspectors, as the bureau of fire is supposed to be a fire fighting unit, not an engineering one.
and whats up with requiring illumination design? do we even have lighting engineers?
and mechanical engineer to sign for a window type aircon? and electronic engineers for your internet router.
its bat shit crazy
Raising the minimum wage as a solution is a joke when we know that businesses are geared towards hiking up prices for higher profit margins.
I don’t think the discovery and invention of more efficient technologies are there to benefit just a few.
I think there’s good reason to view the system we have right now as energy harvesting.
@No one you know
Studies has shown that minimum wage hike can heighten productivity and would only have minimal effect on inflation.
A decreasing level of “working poor” and a more expensive country is alot better choice when the past has shown that it doesnt work economically to have such cheap wages and prices.
Eventhough it hasnt been long since that last political uproar, the country would have been alot richer for all classes by now if the elite would not have focused so much on cheap labor in order to attract investors.
lawyers are probably the highest paid in our society, yet they produce nothing more valuable than cow manure.
if everyone agrees to pay lawyers less, i can agree to pay laborers more.
@Megget “if everyone agrees to pay lawyers less, i can agree to pay laborers more.”
That’s where a socialistic means comes in like for instance a progressive taxation.
nothing good or “progressive” ever came from the tax man.
theres a good reason people in olden times beat these bloodsuckers to death
@Megget
“nothing good or “progressive” ever came from the tax man.”
That’s where you are wrong. Many countries have progressive taxes like the nordic countries… and look how well they are doing.
cos they have oil?
and their own gods..we actually had to import out white jesus
yes, Norway has oil, but they distribute the oil wealth among themselves. Unlike if the country were hardcore capitalist.
Then take for instance Denmark… do some research about how Denmark or Sweden became so rich, and you would know that one of the factors are the taxation.
cos they have oil?
and their own gods..we actually had to import our white jesus
yes, norway has oil.
we dont.
both you and I know that you are just cherrypicking.
I’m done talking to you.
the swiss have cheese the danish have biscuits.
they didnt need law degrees to make them
you wanna get rich?
make some good cheese and sell ’em.
no one gets rich arguing over minimum wage
thats alright..
you go talk to your white jesus tonight, pray that you get a job in scandinavia.
they some good people out there, just stay away from all that pagan death metal, they make your ears bleed
Lowest IQ in Asia and Bottom region IQ in the globally, say a lot. Let them argue and bark, the caravan has moved on, yet the dogs still bark. Let em keep talking to themselves (praying). Good luck.
And this is despite the American younger generations are too dumb to even know what a woman is thanks to promotion of DEI, CRT, Feminism, etc.
Yes, they do not have real health care, pensions, job security, free schooling, etc in the us empire, but they have dozens of sexes they can choose from; usa-ians were turkeys.
Internet nga hindi magawang ayusin. Naniningil pa ngayon ng convenience fee ang mga telco na yan. Parang blank check na ang pribilehiyo ng mga malalaking kompanya ngayon. All at the expense of naive and meek Filipinos.