Redistributing (ill-gotten?) wealth - DEMAND AND SUPPLY

As I stepped out of my car one day last week, a neighbor met me at my driveway to ask me if I knew that people were lining up at the back of the People Power monument and being given cash. She sounded horrified by it and rightly so. But I calmly told her that there is nothing to feel bad about. If that’s what’s happening, whoever is doing it is simply redistributing wealth and that’s good for the economy. That’s a way of pump priming the economy at a time of budget deficits.

I relate this anecdote in the light of the attempt of Erap loyalists to duplicate the recent EDSA Dos that toppled the San Juan macho’s reign. Someone asked me how long do I think will the Erap loyalists stay at the EDSA shrine. I said it doesn’t matter how long they end up staying there so long as they continue to drain somebody’s (ill-gotten?) wealth to benefit the poor.

That’s the trouble with our set-up today. There is no workable and just system of redistributing wealth so that the rich are not disgustingly rich and the poor are not so pitiably dirt poor.

The tax system is so inequitable and so brazenly ignored by the rich and powerful to be an effective redistribution mechanism. Yet, if this market-based capitalist system is to work properly, the poor should have enough purchasing power not just so they could cover their basic human needs but also to turn the wheels of our capitalist market economy.

Because of the rotten social structure we inherited from the Spaniards, the rich and the powerful are guaranteed to remain rich and powerful if they have half a brain. And the real problem is, surplus wealth end up as conspicuous consumption and/or stashed away in foreign bank accounts.

Unfortunately, the government had been unable to put an effective and equitable tax system to fund such things as education and health care to give the poor a fighting chance. Greed motivates the ruling elite to fight to preserve their lion’s share of this country’s scarce resources. And the elite includes people like Erap and Enrile who both claim to be of the poor.

The only time the poor gets noticed enough for them to matter is during election season. Vote buying and its cousin, buying hakots for rallies, are the only barely significant means for redistributing wealth. No wonder the economy, despite our 76 million potential consumers, remains insignificant to investors.

The challenge to GMA, as was the challenge to Presidents before her, is how to put purchasing power in the hands of the masa. Make farming profitable for instance. Or create good paying jobs in the city. Help them get jobs abroad. What they need are honorable means of earning a living. Everything else, including enlightened citizenship and self respect follows.

In the meantime, lining up for food and a little allowance for a day’s rallying is legitimate work in an economy where there is surplus labor. A service is provided and there is someone willing to pay for it. Rallies are part of a politician’s bag of tricks, like buying airtime for political advertising. It is great to have people go to rallies because they believe in a cause. But I am not about to condemn those who rally because it puts a little food on their table.

But if the ruling class knows what is good for itself, it will feverishly work with GMA to figure out how to give the masa sufficient buying power not just for social justice sake and also to make our capitalist economic system work. A just system for redistributing wealth is a matter of self-preservation. Simple as that.

Investor’s woe

It seems our government officials must go beyond lip service in the matter of attracting investors. I received an e-mail from a Filipino executive working overseas who lamented the unfriendly reception he came across with at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I don’t think it is fair to single out the SEC. It is still the rare government office that rolls out the red carpet to investors or taxpayers alike.

Here is that e-mail.

Maybe you can include in your column my experience with the SEC last Friday, April 20. Last month, I started working as the Vice-President for Research and Development of an international software development firm based in Taipei. I had just convinced my company to create a development team in the Philippines and went home last week to start the paperwork to set up a branch office.

Among the first steps was the Name Verification at the SEC. I went there at about 2:00 p.m. Friday, April 20, and was handed an application form by the security guard. There were three clerks there, but they absolutely refused to accept the application form, saying these could be submitted only Mondays through Thursdays.

True enough there was a sign saying so. I tried to explain that I was acting for a foreign investor and had to leave the country on Monday morning, and could they just please accept the form and process it on Monday. The clerk I was talking to did not even look at me and sarcastically replied that I would just have to send somebody else to do it for me.

Is this the way our country treats foreign investors? I bet if I instead go to India I would be treated better. However, being still patriotic (call me a moron), I will go back to the country next week and try again.

Maybe Lilia Bautista and Mar Roxas can set up a one stop shop at BOI in Makati where all of these small but necessary bureaucratic things can be taken care of expeditiously. Frontline clerks at SEC, BOI, etc should also be given seminars in customer service. What is the Civil Service Commission doing about changing the attitude of government personnel on the matter of rendering public service?

Bad air

ER surgeon Dr. Ernie E comes across with a number of crazy cases. This one, he heard about and should serve a warning to some people out there.

A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body but autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination of foods.

It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had his windows been opened, it would not have been fatal. But the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom. He was 22...a big man with a huge capacity for creating this deadly gas.

Three of the rescuers got sick and one was hospitalized.

Oh well, farting is such sweet sorrow...

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])