Surfing the web, I chanced on a site which discussed Why Filipinos Are Not Rich? I found the site intruiging and fascinating.
The article is authored by Thads Bentulan (2007) from a summary of his book: Hyperwage Theory, issued as Thinking Time: The Misadventures of the Street Strategist Vol. 12
Bentulan cited:
“Diminishing circle: The [Filipino] people have no money because the wealth is inequitably in the hands of a few rich. and Community of inequality . . .a huge disparity, an egregious distribution of wealth.”
Bentulan debunked many myths:
“Squander: The Filipinos are poor because they squander money. . . They have nothing to squander. Job search: The Filipinos don’t look for jobs. . . Filipinos are looking for jobs so much so that millions of Filipinos in search of work worldwide. Lazy: The Filipinos are lazy. . . Currently, among the best workers abroad are Filipinos. Unsaving: The Filipinos don’t save. . . We have half of the country living below the poverty line and you expect savings?”
On Filipinos being lazy, Abdullah Al-Maghlooth, a Saudi Arabian, wrote (2008):
“Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Filipino workers — 1,019,577 — outside the Philippines. . . They are known for their professionalism and the quality of their work. . . speak very good English and the technical training they receive in the early stages of their education. . . makes them highly competent in these vital areas. . . .We could die a slow death if they chose to leave us.”
On Filipinos saving, Castell & Tanchuco (2004) noted:
“All of which should lead us to a second look at the vast amount of government resources being spent for to control and penalize gambling. Perhaps the state is better off refocusing its attention to other concerns. This pastime [gambling], illegal or not, will persist as long as savings remain a poor alternative. The state should calculate the beneficial effect on the economy if the money now spent on gambling (not to mention the resources expenses on controlling or punishing it) were saved instead. Then the state could establish saving institutions tailored to these financial flows. For instance, financial institutions whose employees, like bookies, go out to collect savings in small denominations.” Emphasis supplied.
Bentulan argued:
“ . . it is not high education, it is not natural resources, it is not command of English, and it is not low salary that makes a country rich. It is how you value the poorest of the poor. It is how you value least of the least. It is how you value human capital. It is giving labor its true world-market value. It is Hyperwage.”
Bentulan’s solution:
“A legislated minimum wage of about P20,000 ($400) . . . for domestic helpers.”
Thus, he concluded:
“. . . the poor Filipinos are not rich because they do not have money.”
A simple, yet mind-boggling, but elegant idea! If you give people money through higher wages, they will spend. With higher disposable income, it will increase their purchasing power thereby increasing the middle class. Yet, in the scheme of things, with higher wages a Filipino could then afford to send his children to higher education, thus a good command of English; and make profitable use of the Philippines’ vast natural resources. Not your typical chicken or egg story!
You could also find Hyperwage Theory, Part 1 to 28, in this site. I’m still reading it, digesting it, and I might be a new reader to Hyperwage Theory, but from the few parts I’ve already read, I’m intrigued!
Be prepared though, Bentulan writes about his Ideal Audience (in Part 2, Hyperwage Theory Revealed, 12 May 2005):
“Economics is hard enough as it is because it is very mathematical and quite rightly dubbed as the queen of social sciences. . . . As for the rest of readers, well, you can be intellectual voyeurs. Who knows you will understand economics the way the Street Strategist does.
But if you try to argue with me and you don’t have a PhD, don’t. I don’t have time to give you a tutorial in economics. . . .And even if you don’t have a PhD in economics, if you care to hop on to this journey, I assure you, with the guarantee of the expository mastery of the Street Strategist, that you will never look at economics the same way again. I shall liberate your minds and that’s a promise.”
Notes:
Al-Maghlooth, Abdullah (2008). Imagine a world without Filipinos. Email. March 2008. back to text
Bentulan, Thad[deu]s (2007). Why Filipinos Are Not Rich? The Misadventures of the Street Strategist Vol. 12. Manila: The Street Strategist, 25 January 2007. pp. 235-243. back to text
Castell, Marvin & Joel Tanchuco (2004) Are Filipinos Natural Born Gamblers? Manila: De La Salle University, March 2004. back to text
Disclaimer : The posts on this site are my own and doesn’t necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions.
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