It’s really downright funny how the bullshit of economic nationalism pervades the Pinoy blogosphere.
The irony escapes the writers themselves who advocate Filipino economic nationalism but then resides overseas, employed by a foreigner, paid for in foreign funds – and writes in a foreign language at that. How much more ludicrous does it get? Shouldn’t these writers take their own advice – get out of the foreign land where they embedded their families to pontificate on the virtues of Filipino economic nationalism. Wohooo – smell the coffee folks.
But, let’s give the notion its day in court. There are indeed countries which have opted to focus on subtle nationalist jargon of “self-reliance” or as the North Koreans call it – “juche”. Am sure the Cubans also have a term for self-reliance as well – relying on homegrown inbred 1950s technology, in the year 2013.
This very same notion of “self-reliance” also comes in another euphemism called “import substitution”. In “import substitution” nationalist manufacturers attempt to replace an imported component with a locally made one.
The overall arching theme here is that for Filipinos to be “great” everything has to be “made in the Philippines”. What that reminds me of is the typical Pinoy jack of all trades – and master of none.
In a world of core and competitive advantages – that notion is just plain naive. Each country has different factor advantages which lead to different ways of putting the same thing together in order to come up with the same final product – but with different price points and options on the product.
It is this diverse range of unhampered activity in the value chain that leads to breakthroughs in innovation and raises the bar of excellence – customer service excellence, operations excellence, human resource excellence and the like.
The nationalist prescription however is to forego anything – if it’s “not made here” or “not invented here” or “NIH”. In the corporate world the “not invented here” mindset is a red flag of a company that’s about to go extinct – like the dinosaur.
As a social philosophy, it is an unwillingness to adopt an idea or product such as kaizen, agile, lean – because it originates from another culture. It also shows groupthink – a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
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The Grand Strawman
The move to amend the charter by removing the 60/40 restrictions was recently portrayed as pushing for a Philippines that is too reliant on FDI. The statement can be flat out rejected as a nonsequitur.
Removal of the restrictions does not mean relying solely on FDI. Rather it means equal treatment of local and foreign investors under the law so that Filipino consumers and jobseekers have a full range of choices available to each individual.
Meanwhile – while the Philippine nationalists insist on the Philippines “learning to produce what it needs”…
Other countries are cross pollinating their technologies and adopting best practices and learning from the experiences of other countries. Korea had no qualms about being a “loser” – in the words of Filipino nationalists” – in learning, adopting, and assimilating Japanese automotive technology. Fast forward a couple of decades, the Filipino nationalists are still stuck to WWII vintage sarao jeepneys while Korea has moved forward with Kia and Hyundai slugging it out in the world’s most competitive markets.
Meanwhile – while the Philippine nationalists insist on the Philippines “learning to live within its means”…
Other countries are not just living within their means – they are raising their quality of life, they are trimming fat, increasing revenue, creating more opportunities for advancement.
“Living within ones means” does not inspire people. It kills the spirit and keeps people poor.
And with today’s interest rates, quantitative easing /QE3, where they are printing more money, and the value of the currency is being deliberately destroyed by government, it’s very hard to save money.
Instead, I say expand your means. Be creative and put your money into things that make you money.
Money begets money. Most people cut back on spending in tough times. In doing so, lots of people fail to generate and retain wealth. In business, when sales begin to drop, accountants cut back on spending on advertising and promotion. The reduced advertising and promotion leads to drops in sales and the problem gets worse. Know when to spend and when to cut back on spending. When you realize you need to make more income, you need to spend more time, money and energy increasing your income.
Having the capability to fight for the means to produce means having all the necessary tools at one’s disposal and not limiting oneself to use of certain tools only because the other tools are “not invented here”.
Picture this – you have all the right and the means to produce a slingshot with options of having guava or mango base – while the rest of world community is briskly trading automatics in chrome and black.
The efficient use of capital transcends the artificial borders of primitivist nationalist thinking – it’s about time Filipinos realized that there’s more to economics than shallow adolescent nationalism.
I dunno what’s up with all this nationalism bullcrap. There’s more to people than their nationality – foremost of all, they are individuals. Of course, this is reversed in the Philippines where folks define themselves as Filipinos first – and never as individuals. The problem with is “who” defines what a Filipino is? What makes one definition more valid than the rest? Just because someone said so? You gotta be kidding me. 
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Where’s the Bacon Noy?
The Philippines received a credit ratings upgrade a couple of months ago. The Philippine mass media was announcing how the credit ratings upgrade will attract more investments to the Philippines.
Well it’s now the first quarter of 2013. Did the investment show up as forecasted by Noynoy and his sycophants? Hell no it didn’t. Foreign investments in Q1 2013 had a reverse flow of investments. Quite pathetic really on two counts.
1. These blokes had to readjust the annual FDI goal many times.
2. The percentage growth figures pale when faced with the magnitude of the amount of the actual investments that go to our ASEAN Neighbors.
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To get the Philippines and Filipinos back to prosperity – to be able to provide for our when we want it, where we want it, at a price we are willing to pay for – we need less government, we need free and open markets.
To have more income in our wallets – we need to stop government from taking our money away from us by way of more fees and taxes. That means reclaiming from government – the things we can do for ourselves – health, education, entertainment, food, clothing, shelter, energy – for short, our lives. Ask not what government can do for you – ask what you can do for yourself.
We don’t need big brother telling us who we can and who we can’t work for, what to buy and what not to buy, what to eat and what not to eat, where to go to school, what stuff to learn. That’s something Filipinos need to learn to do for themselves – get rid of that pestilent crutch called government.
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