Why we are where we are? Is it all because of us, all of us – not just corruption or political dynasties or oligarchy or whatever?
There’s no perfect country, no perfect politics, no perfect investor class, no perfect people. That being the case, we need to figure out what our “true net worth” is . . . and raise it up? In short, what counts is what we’ve got after we recognize our liabilities. And that demands a great dose of reality. We shall fail as an economy, as a nation if we take reality for granted. For instance, in our minds, have we erected a formidable wall between us and the rest of the world? Countries that walled themselves in were characterized by utter lack of investment, uncompetitive industry, crumbling infrastructure and poverty. Sounds familiar?
Should we all, together, do something, then? For example, our politicians: we don’t need any more especially after Marcos, those who won’t be able to explain their wealth? Is love of country too much to ask – what nation have we turned out to be? And ditto to our influence peddlers and propagandists?
Our Filipino investors: we need you but no one ought to own the country? Only healthy competition will create a robust, modern, competitive economy and bring prosperity? And with your influence you can get our legislators on board and give our economic managers a wider playing field and open the country up, and demonstrate your mettle – but more importantly gain some respect for the nation, i.e., make us attractive to global investors? There’s a thin line between invoking patriotism and nationalism on the one hand, and creating oligarchy on the other! We can use more foreign investments to drive our economy to competitive levels! Unfortunately, we don’t have a Gorbachev to say such a mouthful?
Our industry: we need to raise our sights and tap outside markets and outside resources to aggressively grow our revenues – i.e., we need to raise our competitiveness by stepping up innovation and product development, pursuing greater productivity and profitability? We don’t have to go it alone?
Our people: it is not job-creation per se that we need? A job that does not add economic value is a “Ponzi” scheme. It’s not the same as Roosevelt’s make-work scheme, which was meant to get an economy (with sound fundamentals) that went bust because of excesses back on its feet – to generate consumption that had ground to a halt. We have a structural problem – a major lack of investment and competitiveness – and what we need are jobs that drive our industry to be competitive. Jobs that do otherwise are akin to a running car with its gas tank leaking – it will conk out because it is not sustainable. The lessons from the former Soviet empire are recent enough to forget. And in today’s news, Greece – where a bloated bureaucracy was meant to take care of the few to the detriment of the common good? (Disclosure: the writer has friends from Greece who can give an earful; and from former Soviet satellites too.)
Our leaders: there’s no need to be patronizing. How should we react when we call importing generator sets and grains as economic initiatives in the 21st century? It’s an indictment of the Filipino – they are reflective of an incompetent or corrupt system or both? As we learn from the private sector, the bias for competence, efficiency and productivity provides no room for corruption? Nor can we keep to transactional, tactical or populist initiatives! They’re akin to almsgiving but miss our structural problem, i.e., investment and competitiveness?
Our economists: our paradigms and models need to work. We may not have a George Soros to urge our economists to rethink these models – the point of the article, Twin peaks from The Economist, Apr 15th 2010 re George Soros has left his mark on many economies. Can he do the same for economics?
We are where we are because unwittingly we created a perfect storm?
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