How to stop or solve the poverty in the Philippines?

[al1974]

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Heyperwage theory says:


But for now, let’s continue our survey of more ways by Hyperwage Theory elegantly handles non-economic problems.

Rebellion
The root of rebellion is injustice; the root of injustice is poverty. You solve poverty, you solve rebellion. No need for negotiation panels, no need for a strong army, no need for more armored trucks.

Consider the current strategy of our government, how many billions spent over the last 30 years on a destructive war against our own people who only original sin was poverty?

Think. If all those billions were released to the poorest of the poor in terms of minimum wage, and then subjected to the multiplier and accelerator effects, our economy will be in an upward spiral.

This is the reason, I view our current strategy with the rebels as useless. The rebels are not even asking for P20,000 per month, but Hyperwage is giving it to them.
Isn’t Hyperwage great?

Employee forever?
A bank manager does not want to be an employee forever. He is a prime candidate as an entrepreneur but he doesn’t have capital because his salary is just slightly above that of the domestic helper in Singapore, and all our equipments are purchased from Singapore and Taiwan and Hong Kong or Europe, all hyperwage countries, how can he start this own business?

With Hyperwage, many middle managers will be able to save enough capital to pursue his own business dreams.

Currently, you have to wait till you are 65 years old to retire and use your pension funds to start your own business. The prime of your productivity has long since elapsed.

Export quality
One furniture exporter told me his business will close down under Hyperwage. Of course, not. Right now, his export quality products are affordable only by the First World countries.

Given Hyperwage, the domestic market will be as powerful as the export market. Does Intel or Microsoft export abroad to survive? No, they became successful in their own domestic markets.

Why can’t it be the same for the furniture industry?

Shift your minds. Don’t look at the expense side, look at the revenue side. You can increase both your volumes and your prices under a Hyperwage regime.

And another non-economic benefit, our homes will have high quality furniture, unlike the current cheap ones we have.

Hyperwage will build and expand not destroy the cottage industries and any other industry for that matter.

All these benefits and above in just one single stroke. Give the worker their true value of labor based on world standards. Isn’t Hyperwage elegant?

Medical care
It costs about P5,000 for a normal delivery in hyperwage Hong Kong but about P50,000 here in this country? Why? I don’t know.

The Hong Kong government has so much money from the taxes of the people who are paid at hyperwage salaries, and no corruption, such that they can subsidize medical care for the general public.

And did I tell you their public hospitals look like four-star hotels?
And for those who want private hospitals they can enroll for medical insurance, which they can afford because they have hyperwage salaries. Can you imagine our own country’s insurance industry boom under hyperwage?

Our medicines are inordinately expensive compared to our incomes because they are invented and copyrighted and priced based on the pharma firm’s hyperwage costs. We are paying for these hyperwage-priced medical products (NMR machines, X-rays) using our Third World wages, isn’t this bad economic strategy?

Public services
I have written some time ago the time when one Christmas I entered the newly opened Hong Kong central library. I actually wept. I did not cry. I wept. It’s like a five-star hotel, with wall to wall carpeting, elevators, escalators, and interior decoration. Internet plug points are free if you bring your laptop or you can use their computers. The books are hardbound glossy book paper. Only the novels are paperbacks.

Our people deserve such high quality of service as much as these Hongkongers do.

With an economically empowered public, we will demand world-class service after all we will be paying world-class taxes too. In Hong Kong, income tax is maxed at only 15% even if you earn $1 billion.

Political enrichment
Actually, if you still don’t realize it, we are partially in Hyperwage status but only for the politicians with their travel expenses and huge allowances and kickbacks from the projects.

This is grossly unfair, and the only way I see to correct this situation is to slice some of those extremely egregious allowances and give it back to the people in terms of high wages.

Vote buying
Speaking of politics, why do well our votes for a kilo of rice, or even for P500? Are we that poor such that we are willing to sell our political souls to the highest bidder?
How are we addressing this issue?

I think only Hyperwage will solve this problem realistically. Yes, realistically. An economically empowered people are usually morally upright people.
I have to go now. More non-economic solutions next time. chool.

[al1974]

Here are more non-economic but natural consequences of Hyperwage.

Traffic
I have always wondered why the First World countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and European countries have lighter traffic jams. Yes, New York is a mess, Los Angeles is another mess but compared to Bangkok or Manila, their traffic jams are a minor event. In general, taxis in Hong Kong can speed up to 100 kph in the business district. Take a land trip across Europe and you will wonder where the people are.

One way to reduce the traffic jams in Third World countries is to resort to Hyperwage. Sounds obtuse?

Not really. Under a hyperwage regime, we will value our time and productivity. We will refrain from unnecessary trips. If it costs you P700 per day to maintain a messenger, you will think twice about keeping one. Instead, you will rely on intra-city couriers who will pick up and deliver your packages within the same day. Result: lesser traffic due to lesser number of in-house messengers.

Also, since one can engage his time productively such as babysitting, unnecessary trips will be reduced.

Taxi fares will be expensive, bus fares will be expensive and our personal times will be expensive (though still affordable given Hyperwage) leading to cost rationalization. In short, Hyperwage will tend to reduce traffic especially if the government can afford high speed trains and tunnels. After all, for every dollar given the minimum wage workers the entire economy gets five dollars assuming a multiplier of five.

Reservation wage and indolence
A reservation wage is threshold that will force the voluntarily unemployed to seek employment. Remember that some unemployment in Third World countries are voluntary. Why?

To work across town, you need food, clothing and transportation expenses. But if wages in the factory are just about the same as these expenses, there is no incentive to work. It would be better to stay at home.

Say, if the wages are only P4,000 per month, and your monthly expenses in going and coming from the factory is also P4,000, why bother? That is the reservation wage.

Given Hyperwage, many of those who are voluntarily unemployed will be going to work. There will be no shortage of plumbers, carpenters, and electricians.

In fact, those who are unskilled will be forced by the new economic situation to attend trade skills programs by the government.

Who says the Filipinos are indolent. Is it because they are lazy or it is because of the reservation wage?

How many wives are breadwinners because their husbands are unwilling to find work? In this way, the indolence of the husbands will be cured. Under a Hyperwage regime, he will learn plumbing because plumbers will be handsomely paid and could now afford to buy their own cars or yatchs.

Rape, abuse and dignity
I once interviewed a 50-year old male OFW operating heavy equipment. I said, “Frankly, even at your age, how many times have you been sodomized by your boss in the Middle East?”

He was shocked I asked that question but he confessed: “There’s was nothing I can do about it. If I refuse, my daily life will be hard, and my boss can ship me out anytime.”

How many women and men have been raped and sodomized and remained silent about it to avoid embarrassment?

Everyday, our embassies and consulates are full of young women forced to do oral *** on their bosses, punched and whipped by the wives of their employees, their faces burned with sizzling flat irons.

Yet, what is our government doing? If you survey our OFWs you will realize that our government is inutile when it comes to defending our OFWs. The ‘new hero’ slogan is a mere slogan. Our government is only interested in getting its share of fees, charges, and taxes.

And I’m not being a cynic. This is the actual day to day experience of our abused OFWs.

Our government “requests” the foreign companies or employers. If such abuse was perpetrated on a US citizen, the USA will “demand.”

As poor citizens, we are not assertive enough to demand action from our government to demand action from the governments with abusive employers.

Given Hyperwage, our citizens will find courage and assertiveness. Economically empowered citizens demand for better service from the government.

Of course, our politicians don’t care. They get special treatment every time.

Strategy of broken homes
The government thanks the overseas migrant workers for their inward dollar remittances.

Yet, despite the short term benefit to the economy in terms of government dollar reserves, what is the long-term effect of encouraging our people to leave this country?

Broken homes, separated families, homesick fathers. The mother works as a sexually abused maid in Hong Kong.

This is the strategy of broken homes ironically being perpetrated by the state.

I know of one employer who places a camera inside the bathroom, and the maid knows about it but can’t do anything about it These are the kinds of abuses that they never tell their husbands back home.

Back in the country, her daughter gets pregnant at 16, her son is into drugs, and her husband has a woman. This is very common among OFWs, that if these are your only problems, your fellow OFWs will simply ignore your complaints and continue their karaoke singing.

You need to have a greater problem to catch their attention such a husband impregnating the daughter to be of value to the OFWs. This is the reality not seen by our families back in the country.

Politics
Why is it that our daily fare is political gossip? Because we have no business to run, no employment, and nothing to do. We consider politics as a way to climb up economically, via corruption obviously.

Third World countries spend so much time politicking. In Hong Kong, during elections, about 50 to 75 positions are automatic because only one is running as representatives. In some districts nobody runs at all. This despite the salary of the of about half-million pesos a month (how many TVs can that buy per month given that TV prices in HKG and the Philippines are about the same anyway?)

People with purchasing power usually have a reduced interest in politics.

Petty crimes and corruption
It’s very sad. You hear about people stealing telephone cables, rice kettles, manhole covers, and even street railings.

You hear about police stopping foreigners for a pack of cigarettes, or a government clerk asking for P5.00 for a xerox copy of a government form that is supposedly free.

Due to the very low wages, we sell our souls for a few pesos. We cannot obtain a permit with giving some grease money.

And let me make this generalization: The poor people are not angry at high corruption but they are angry at petty corruption. The former does not affect them. Millions in kickbacks for fat contracts do not bother the citizens. It is the petty corruption at the local government units that angers the people.

And petty corruption will be wiped out in a large way with Hyperwage. There is high crime in Singapore, Hong Kong or Japan, but the people in the street don’t care because there are no petty crimes.

Yet, what is our solution to petty corruption? Large banners of “beware of fixers?” No sir, that is not the way. Hyperwage is the only viable solution. An economically-empowered citizens will be assertive enough to stand up to petty corruption and the government worker will not steep so low as to sell his morality and dignity.

High corruption
Large infrastructure contracts always mean high corruption in Third World countries. Yet, if the individuals comprising the bureaucracy will not sell their souls, high corruption will be minimized.

Furthermore, if the wages of the workers are of hyperwage levels, there will be lesser money to corrupt because while the government official can get kickbacks from the materials, it would be difficult to get kickbacks from wages.

Therefore, instead of kickbacks, the money goes to the workers as high wages. Before hyperwage, 40% goes to kickback because wages are low. Under a hyperwage regime, the kickback will only be 10% because the budget for labor is transparent.

And the contractors cannot simply overprice the project otherwise the project will be more expensive than its American equivalent.

Factor prices
The economists are an amusing group. They always preach about paying for market price, that markets should be left alone. They call it factor prices or prices for the factors of production.

Okay, what is the factor price for oil? Then all economies, rich or poor, have no choice but to pay for the world market price of oil. And the economists will tell you that a poor country like the Philippines should not tamper with market price and that we should pay that. They don’t even favor any form of subsidy. Indedd, they even add import duties, specific taxes, and VAT for oil.

Now, what is the factor price for labor? We have a reference. In the US, the federal minimum wage by 2007 will be $7 per hour or about P3,000 per day at today’s exchange rates.

Yet, what is the reaction of the economists when I say that we should pay workers using the factor price for labor in the world market which is P3,000 per day? (Actually, P20,000 per month works out to only P770 per day!!). They say, that’s impossible.

I can’t even imagine the logic. We pay for market price for oil but we don’t pay for market price for labor. Is human labor of lesser importance than a mere commodity like oil?

The computers, the cars, the mobile phones, the photocopy machines, printers, the control circuits all are produced in First World countries using hyperwage salaries. Their selling prices include hyperwage labor, and we are paying for these equipment.

In other words, every day, we use imported equipment and machines and yet we claim we can’t afford hyperwage? Are you telling me that our businesses and the government can afford to pay the hyperwages of some foreigners who built these imported equipment but cannot afford to pay locally-made machines if hyperwage is imputed? Isn’t that reverse discrimination? Where is the logic of it all?

Or is it because the government can afford to abuse its own people while at the same time protect the rights and pay the hyperwage of the foreigners who built the imported equipment?

Is this what is called dignity of labor? Hyperwage is probably the most Christian of all economic theories. The Church should support it.

Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient one way to measure the distribution of wealth. According to the world bank, the top 5% of the country owns 33% of the wealth. Surely, that is obscene.

Yet given the current economic policies pursued by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other poverty-alleviating banks the Gini coefficient has illustrated an increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

Distribution of wealth
What is the economic solution to the problem of extreme inequality in the distribution of wealth? Not much. Taxation is usually their answer. Very lame, very questionable solution. Taxation can be evaded, and in the hands of the government taxes can be corrupted.

The only realistic solution is Hyperwage. Excessive profits at the expense of the dignity of the workers is injustice.

And yet, the businesses should be concerned because all of these hyperwages will be spent by the minimum wage workers to buy own goods and service.

Plus the economic multiplier. The government will be extremely happy with the quantum increase in the number of commercial transactions and the multiplier effect on our GNP.
Isn’t hyperwage elegant? It solves poverty and unequal distribution of wealth and hundreds of non-economic problems with one single stroke. It is actually a cheap and efficient solution.

Center of the intellectual universe
I envy the capacity of the US as the center of the intellectual universe. Given our current economic policies, there is no way we can be such a center. No way.

But with Hyperwage, there is hope.

I dream of such a center. I will create a center for theoretical physics or mathematics or economics right in Panglao or El Nido. Those studies that don’t require heavy machinery, for a start. I will pay the Nobel Prize winners to come and stay for a year, and they can do all their thinking while scuba diving and lying in a hammock among the coconut trees.

Given the same amount of salaries but with the ambience of the beach within walking distance from the center, will the Nobel Prize winners come?

Yes! And they will teach in the local universities and hire research assistants.

They only reason why the Philippines is not the center of the intellectual universe despite its beautiful landscape and weather is the lack of financial enticement for the intellectual giants to come and converge in the beaches of Boracay for a year or two. The internet has bridged the world but the low wages perpetrates the intellectual divide.

Anyway, this is the only realistic way to stop and even to reverse the brain drain.

How I wish. A home in the beautiful beaches of the Philippines for 1,000 intellectual giants in their own respective disciplines -

[r3roble]

hyperwage theory? if ever lang, na... ari nalang jud cguro ta manrabaho... dli na mo abroad...

[brownprose]

Please read the whole Hyperwage Theory and find out that this is possible and probable.

What is inflation? price increasing? But up to what levels when at current levels we are already having prices beyond the world market value. Read the whole theory bro and find out about asymptotic inflation. Dont just shoot an idea before it is even explained. peace

Bro...you just said it yourself it is a "Theory" and remains to be proven. Arbitrary increase in wages has been proven to be inflationary -- and it's not a theory but supported by empirical data. Between (unproven) theory and historical evidence, would you really think anyone would buy your theory?

By the way...I have heard this theory sometime more than two years ago by Thads Bentulan (sorry if i mispelled his name)...frankly, I don't even know if he understands his economics well although I don't wish to presume an expert here but it's poor economics to ignore proven economic concepts which is what this whole theory conversely presents.

[tingkoy13]

tag-asa sad ani oi, d ma help ....

[DEMONOCIETY]

aw mag-open ug daghan opportunity na masdako pa ug sweldo sa abroad kana ug kamong mga companya willing ba mo mohatag?

[brownprose]

I have read your position and they are VERY SPECULATIVE.

Here are more non-economic but natural consequences of Hyperwage.

Reservation wage and indolence
A reservation wage is threshold that will force the voluntarily unemployed to seek employment. Remember that some unemployment in Third World countries are voluntary. Why?

To work across town, you need food, clothing and transportation expenses. But if wages in the factory are just about the same as these expenses, there is no incentive to work. It would be better to stay at home.

Say, if the wages are only P4,000 per month, and your monthly expenses in going and coming from the factory is also P4,000, why bother? That is the reservation wage.

This is not true and very misleading...aren't you aware that there are people who even want to get underpaid just to find work? Maids, labandera, kargador etc...

So the point is low wages is not a reason not to work especially when you're to choose between work and survival

Your theory is good only... too good to be true.

[nItO/pIrEnA]

one child policy (hala, kaysa no-child) to all those living below the poverty line

[zurita10]

Suggestion

- death penalty to corrupt officials (that's public execution if you are proven stealing from our country)
- government officials life belongs to the country (they will no longer go home to there family, they will all stay in a government dormitory, with cams all over, like your playing God PBB. We get to see them 24/7) <-- and if proven stealing, go to step 1. There family could always visit them on the weekend.
- Prisoners / Law offenders they will row like BenHur. We will have a free public transportation boats that roam our seas. Like in BenHur they will row, manual labor, they will be punished for there crimes. They will get to eat though (human rights) but they will have to row. We will have mass production of the old boats. RAMMING SPEED. or we could always make monuments like the old days. Serve your term in shorter years, but manual labor to the max.
People are no longer afraid to go to jail, life is like the same in jail, the thing is, your in a cage.
- Look for high IQ people. Get them educated. Like they are the research team of your country. If there is a problem, lock them in a room and they will find a solution. Research department.

more and more and more....

[rAnzter]

Dili mag sige himu ug anak nga dili ta ka buhi......