Inequality and the common good

The answer to “inequality” is not paternalism but the commitment to the common good.

Translation: “Robbing” Peter to “pay” Paul doesn’t pass the “common good” test. Yet, because it is easy to mouth “inequality,” and given we equate paternalism with compassion, we believe we are model Christians – and patriots – by doing so.

Recall the consistent themes of the blog: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism that we rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

What are we dismissing? There is a parallel between Christianity and democracy. Take maturity and authenticity. They are the converse of hypocrisy.

In other words, democracy demands self-government, which translates to personal responsibility – that as a people, we strive for the common good.

Neither Christianity nor democracy is spoon-fed and self-absorbed. There is no free lunch. And that is why we have the choice to reject both. Recall “Love they neighbor as thy self.” Or in popular culture, “The Golden Rule.”

Consider: Because of our value of hierarchy and paternalism, we elevated political patronage and oligarchy to a superior position, beyond transparency – to answer the question, “What’s in it for me”?

Who cares if we are the pariah nation? In other words, after Marcos and after Duterte, we will breed more of the same. Did we not, in the elite class, applaud Marcos – and more recently – Duterte?

To buy into autocracy is an insult to Juan de la Cruz that we are consigning him to blind obedience and taking a pass on self-government, personal responsibility, and the common good.

In short, we have rejected democracy and become the “Bondying” nation. That is why Trump, given he never takes personal responsibility, is called a narcissist.

We trumpet PH as a fast-growing economy because of the OFW phenomenon and the BPO industry. We are taking credit away from over 10 million Filipinos whose families pay the social costs to keep this country afloat.

We can only look inward, not award. Otherwise, we should have known decades ago that we were on the wrong trajectory as a nation. To add insult to injury, we keep blaming others instead of ourselves.

Consider: “Amid these urgent and troubling times, the congressional intramural in the Philippines that has interrupted needed budget deliberations only serves to exacerbate our helplessness in the fight against the pandemic. The politicking will produce disturbing social implications in its selfish and shameless aftermath.” [Inequality and inclusive prosperity, Diwa C. Guinigundo, Signs And Wonders, BusinessWorld 15th Oct 2020]

Indeed, politicking has no place in these urgent and troubling times. However, beyond this urgency, we have a far more significant structural challenge beyond this year’s budget deliberations.

We can’t keep digging our heads in the sand.

Here’s Fr. George Gorospe, SJ, again, on authenticity and maturity: “The solution to a problem depends to a great extent on one’s awareness of the problem and his attitude towards it. The worse possible attitude is not to be aware of the issue at all.

“Filipinos will make no progress toward a Christian solution until they realize that the problem is severe and urgent.

“We cannot understand Christian commitment without saying a word about Christian responsibility. First of all, to be ‘responsible’ means to respond freely on one’s own independently of others, to be able to think and decide for oneself and therefore answerable or accountable for one’s actions. In this sense, being responsible is identical to accepting one’s status as a free independent individual, with being a person.”

Beyond taking credit away from the OFWs, we lionize our tycoons, yet our top eight companies can't even match one Vietnam enterprise's output because of our inward-looking instincts.

“Vietnamese set to get richer than Filipinos this year — IMF,” Ian Nicolas Cigaral, Philstar.com, 14th Oct 2020. “Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua did not respond to request for comment.

“Beyond public health, Calixto Chikiamco, president of Foundation for Economic Freedom, a group of former finance secretaries, said the Philippines’ slow-moving reforms such as opening up the economy to more foreign investments, put it behind.

“Vietnam has more capable institutions, have been very aggressive in liberalizing rules for foreign investment, and have adopted the correct strategy of focusing on improving agricultural productivity, light manufacturing growth, and exports.”

“After World War II, the ‘Asian miracles’ — first Japan, then Taiwan and South Korea, most recently China — grew their way out of poverty by opening to trade and investment and becoming manufacturing export powerhouses. Now, Vietnam is following the same path, but in an entirely new age.” [Is Vietnam the Next ‘Asian Miracle’ (?), Ruchir Sharma, The New York Times, 13th Oct 2020]

But it is not only in the industry where Vietnam shows us the way. Here’s a quote from an earlier posting.

“South Vietnam, following the Vietnam War, became a rice importer by 1965, but the output did rise in the 1970s. 

“Rice production in the Mekong delta has seen a phenomenal increase in recent years. This increase resulted from the planting of modern early maturing rice varieties, better management, appropriate government interventions.

“Forty-two IRRI researched varieties of rice were grown in the Mekong Delta, and these varieties cover 60% of the irrigated rice-growing area in the delta.

“The Philippines cannot be competitive by enhancing the rice production system alone. Its marketing system must, likewise, improve.”

Let’s get back to inequality. How relevant are the following to the Philippine dilemma?

Let’s start with, “Piketty advocates a transition to socialism. The Economist calls this ‘millennial socialism’ because it involves ‘democratizing’ the economy, transferring control from capitalists and the government elite to ordinary folk.” [Inequality and inclusive prosperity, Diwa C. Guinigundo, Signs And Wonders, BusinessWorld 15th Oct 2020]

And then, “In today’s world, many forms of injustice persist fed by reductive anthropological visions and by a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to exploit, discard and even kill human beings. While one part of humanity lives in opulence, another part sees its dignity denied, scorned, or trampled upon and its fundamental rights discarded or violated. What does this tell us about the equality of rights grounded in innate human dignity?” [Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis, Elfren S. Cruz, BREAKTHROUGH, The Philippine Star, 11th Oct 2020]

Of course, they are relevant. But those are motherhood statements that are not actionable as far as Juan de la Cruz is concerned.

The answer to “inequality” is not paternalism but the commitment to the common good.

And that is where we fall flat on our face. The search for the common good is not like that of the Holy Grail. History tells us how nations – and everyone started as underdeveloped –  traverse poverty to prosperity. And if we’re so unlike the Europeans, we have our neighbors to look up and imitate.

In other words, no nation was born on a silver platter.

Let’s restate the principles.

Democracy demands self-government, which translates to personal responsibility – that as a people, we strive for the common good.

Neither Christianity nor democracy is spoon-fed and self-absorbed. There is no free lunch. And that is why we have the choice to reject both. Recall “Love they neighbor as thy self.” Or in popular culture, “The Golden Rule.”

Consider: Because of our value of hierarchy and paternalism, we elevated political patronage and oligarchy to a superior position, beyond transparency – to answer the question, “What’s in it for me”?

Owing to our parochialism and insularity, we wasted decades instead of pursuing the common good.

And that is why we lack the experience in human development. And because of this inexperience, we can’t forward-think. For example, why can’t we set ourselves to traverse the road from poverty to prosperity?

“What’s in it for me,” gets in the way. Recall after the Americans gave us independence and elected Roxas president, graft and corruption came hand in glove with the public sector. At the same time, military police abuses in the provinces were rampant.

We didn’t learn authenticity and gain maturity. Our neighbors showed us the way. Instead, we assumed we had absolute knowledge – that we are the fastest-growing economy – forgetting that we are getting a free lunch courtesy of over 10 million OFWs.

If we have experience in human development, we would have known some fundamental givens. To traverse poverty to prosperity, we must know how to prioritize – to get the biggest bang for the buck. It is not “what’s in it for me.”

Vietnam, despite the Vietnam war, overtook us in the pursuit of industrialization and agribusiness. And all they did was replicate the Asian Tigers’ efforts – beg for Western money and technology. They saw that as a priority.

But let’s digress a bit.

How come we erected barriers to foreign investment while our neighbors begged for them?

Our values – i.e., parochialism, insularly, hierarchy, paternalism – undermined our ability to embrace the common good. And beyond our shores, the “common good” is expressed as interdependence.

Consider: Human development applies to people and nations. As humankind adapts to this world’s dynamism – e.g., from living in caves to modern-day homes – moves up from dualism, as in either/or, to relativism.

Think of Germany and Japan and how the allies had to deal with them. Yet, both nations today are paragons of interdependence.

People and nations can learn about common good and interdependence. It took a while despite nature being the manifestation of the very heart of creation, i.e., dynamism. And the best example is the photosynthesis phenomenon.

If we struggle with democracy and its demands of personal responsibility and the common good, how can we embrace nations’ interdependence?

Let’s get back to Vietnam and how they surprised the rest of the world, no different from the Asian Tigers before them.

That is why the blog teed up two concrete initiatives for the Philippines to consider.

Since our most significant exports are similar to those of Vietnam (a) to lure the most significant global brand in electronic devices and offer an aggressive tax regime, and (b) to mirror the development of the Pearl River Delta Economic development zone.

That is how we get the biggest bang for the buck. We have been kicking around lots of the “trivial many” that we miss the “vital few.”

And that is a function of the lack of human development experience.

The answer to “inequality” is not paternalism but the commitment to the common good.

If we are not there yet given our state of development, we better hurry. The world will not wait for us.

Gising bayan!

“Here is a land in which a few are spectacularly rich while the masses remain abjectly poor. And where freedom and its blessings are a reality for a minority and an illusion for the many. Here is a land consecrated to democracy but run by an entrenched plutocracy, dedicated to equality but mired in an archaic system of caste. 

“But the fault was chiefly their own. Filipinos profess the love of country, but love themselves – individually – more.” [Ninoy Aquino, Foreign Affairs magazine, July 1968; Stanley Karnow, New York Times Magazine, “Cory Aquino’s Downhill Slide,” 19th Aug 1990.]

“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Moreover, that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.” [We are ruled by Rizal’s ‘tyrants of tomorrow,’ Editorial, The Manila Times, 29th Dec 2015]

“True social reform has little to do with politics. To unmoor ourselves from the burdens of the past, we must be engaged in the act of continual and conscious self-renewal. All men are partially buried in the grave of custom. Even virtue is no longer such if it is stagnant.

“Change begins when we finally choose to examine critically and then recalibrate the ill-serving codes and conventions handed down to us, often unquestioned, by the past and its power structures. It is essentially an act of imagination first.” [David Henry Thoreau; American essayist, poet, and philosopher; 1817-1862]

“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists. [A] nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]

“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard, and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]

“Development is informed by a people’s worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]

“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]

“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists, and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]