Let’s do a head-to-head matchup! Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is leading in the polls among possible senatoriables for the coming midterm elections, versus Baldomero Falcone, a two-time candidate for the Senate who has lost on both tries. Has Falcone served as an executive in a local government? No. Has Falcone served in the legislature? No. Does Falcone take Fentanyl? I’m not sure, maybe he doesn’t. Duterte, on the other hand, gets a yes on every point! Woo-hoo! Vote for Duterte! So why can’t we just give, say, a million Duterte votes to Falcone and shave off another million votes from each of the other top candidates in the Magic 10 to give Falcone a fair shot at winning a senate seat? For our bleeding-heart senators who have voted to increase the minimum wage by Php100 across the board, isn’t that pretty much the same concept? It is essentially the concept of redistribution of wealth! If we take from someone who produces to give to someone who doesn’t, or at least who doesn’t produce as much, you’re going to incentivize less production.
Duterte lackey and self-professed social justice advocate, senator Bong Go, stated:
“Mr. President, dapat po talaga ay may maayos na pasahod sa mga ordinaryong manggagawang Pilipino. It is the goal of this measure to provide for a living wage that allows our Filipino workers to earn enough for a satisfactory standard of living and prevent them from falling into poverty.
“Moreover, as an advocate of social justice, I just want to reiterate the importance of striking a balance between the interest of the employers and workers. Dapat po ay may pantay ding pagkilala sa karapatan at kapakanan ng lahat ng sektor sa lakas-paggawa.
“Sa mga mayayaman, kung di naman kayo malulugi, ipamahagi niyo naman po ang kita ninyo sa mga mahihirap — sa mga isang kahig, isang tuka, na bawat piso po ay napakahalaga na meron pong pambili ng pagkain, na may laman po ang tiyan sa araw-araw.
Translated:
“Mr. President, there should really be a proper wage for ordinary Filipino workers. It is the goal of this measure to provide for a living wage that allows our Filipino workers to earn enough for a satisfactory standard of living and prevent them from falling into poverty.
“Moreover, as an advocate of social justice, I just want to reiterate the importance of striking a balance between the interest of the employers and workers. There should also be equal recognition of the rights and welfare of all sectors in the workforce.
“To the rich, if you are not losing money, distribute your income to the poor – to those who have a one scratch, one peck type of life, that every peso is very important to buy food, that has a full stomach everyday.”
Wow! Bravo! Maybe senator Go should have proceeded in running for president in the last elections! So, will raising the minimum wage by Php100 really be the answer to alleviate many Filipinos out of poverty? Would raising the minimum wage to a “living wage” standard increase the per capita income of Filipinos?
When I was still in Environmental Engineering school, I heard a saying, in jest, that goes: “The solution to pollution is dilution!” The idea is that the concentration count of sh*t (coliforms) in a water sample would decrease if you increased the volume of water. You know what? That is true! You will see a decrease in coliform concentration count! But are we really eliminating the sh*t in the water and the underlying cause of why we are even getting sh*t in the water? This is precisely what our bleeding-heart senators are doing. They want to artificially raise the income per capita by hiking the minimum wage but that doesn’t even address poverty or why we have a miserable labor market! Why isn’t there enough job demand that pays this “living wage” to meet the available supply of labor in our country? We have so many able-bodied people available to work but not enough jobs that offer this supposed living wage!
Well, I believe former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once told a former economics student of hers, “It’s the Economy, Student!”
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, more than 90% of business in the country are classified as “Micro enterprise” and this is followed by almost 9% classified under “Small enterprise”. So, we are dealing with many family-owned, mom and pop type of businesses and operations that will probably take a huge hit in profit margins should this wage hike push through that would increase their overhead cost. With higher overhead costs, many businesses would tend to resort to creative ways to keep their losses at a minimum. If they do not end up closing shop, some businesses may reduce their workforce. Another way to cut losses due to labor cost is to resort to schemes that will allow them to avoid paying benefits and things like the 13th month pay. Endo, does that ring a bell? Of course, the most common way for businesses to cut their losses is to pass the added cost to the consumers through price hikes for the goods and services they produce. What do we call the measure when prices of goods and services rise over time? That is correct – INFLATION! Now guess what happens when inflation catches up with the government-imposed wage increase? The wage increase loses its effect and who gets to suffer the most in this situation? The informal sector, precisely because they don’t receive any wage increases because they don’t have actual employers mandated to give them a minimum wage to begin with! These are the poorest of the poor these politicians love to pander to and give doleouts like the 4Ps to! Is it any wonder why we have a huge underemployment problem? Is it any wonder why the prices of goods and services keep on rising and many Filipinos in the country’s labor force cannot escape from Endo? It seems like we have a bunch of economic Einsteins in the senate and a bunch of economic Darwin award recipients among the electorate who love voting for these types of senatorial clowns!
Depending on the region, the minimum wage in the Philippines ranges from Php341 to Php610 per day. If we embrace the sentiments of self-professed social justice advocates like senator Bong Go, in providing a satisfactory standard of living for Filipino workers, why just increase the minimum wage by Php100? Why not by Php1,000? Php10,000 even? Heck, the senators can legislate a minimum wage of Kardashian proportions, but the fact is, it really doesn’t matter because the hike won’t make food, tuition fees, medical bills, and oil prices cheaper and Endo will still be around!
So, the rich should redistribute their income to the poor, as the good and brilliant Davao senator said? So basically, if you have a bit more, you should give it to someone who has a bit less. Now, that is fine and dandy if this is something voluntary. However, if this is through legislation, it has the force of law! The bill actually describes fines of Php25,000 to Php100,000, or with imprisonment of between 2-4 years, as well as award of back pay for employers violating the law. So essentially, the government is forcing employers to give more of their profits under the threat of monetary consequences and imprisonment. What happens when we force the reduction of profits from businesses? It results in the business having less, or even nothing, to invest with in developing and expanding their business. So, the incentive for businesses to hire more people gets reduced.
While it may sound noble and compassionate for these legislators to improve the financial lives of the people, as we have seen many times over, these populist laws that the legislators impose on people are often the cause of our economic problems! If senator Go wants the rich to redistribute their wealth to the poor, maybe he can get his friend, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, to fork out maybe 35% of his wealth to the poor when he meets this “Appointed Son of God” in the senate on March 5, during which the pastor is scheduled to appear to answer the allegations against him for human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence, and other abuses. Or maybe Go himself can voluntarily give out 35% of his wealth to the poor! Hey, his benefactor, former president Duterte says Go is a billionaire! The good senator doesn’t need that much, right? How about the rest of the senators who voted for the measure? Will they fork over 35% of their millions or even billions to the poor? Yah, I am not holding my breath on that.
