How The Oligarchy Is A Threat To Philippine Democracy

There's always the boogeyman that says, "If you let foreigners invest in the Philippines - they're the only ones who will get rich." This is coming from people who actually enjoy having vacations in first world countries that benefit greatly from foreign investors. It also has me getting concerned with bragging about Philippine democracy. I remembered writing about bragging that the Philippines is supposedly a shining example of democracy while it's a protectionist state. This has me considering that the oligarchy in itself is really a threat to democracy. I really laughed when Hilario Davide admitted that he thinks that the 1987 Constitution is the best in the world. Yes, it's the best in the world but only for the oligarchs that benefit from it. I'm amazed at how Davide himself even goes as far as to perpetuate the lie that foreign investors are a threat to Philippine sovereignty. Is the old man really in need of his medication like a certain 4Ps-obsessed old man? 

It doesn't matter how many new business laws are passed in the Philippines for fair practice. The problem isn't a lack of laws for businesses but a lack of COMPETITION. Some say that privatization is a bad idea. Unfortunately, government investors aren't as good as private investors. It's the job of the government to keep society in check but investments is not one of their areas. The government's job is to make sure that free markets are not restricted. Government intervention should only come in when businesses start going against laws and morals - not intervening for the sake of intervening. So how does a lack of competition turn the oligarchy into a tyranny? It's because if there's very little competition then there's very little competitiveness. Why should a company care too much if there's little to no competition? It would be very easy to keep an eye on their competitors because there are too few. That, in turn, will allow members of the oligarchy to easily manipulate prices, low supply means that they automatically get higher prices from their customers, and they can get away with poor services because Filipinos have no choice.

How does the oligarchy become a dictatorship? It's because dictatorship is not exclusive to politics. You don't have to be a ruler of a nation or a politician to be one. Have you ever heard of the phrase workplace dictator? You can a dictator if you're an authority figure who misuses and abuses one's power for personal gain. A dictator is a person who demands respect but won't respect others. Isn't that what the oligarchy is doing? They're demanding people to respect them but they never respect their customers. The workplace can be a dictatorship because people are overwork and underpaid rather than paid according to their performance. Worse, people will have very few choices for work in the Philippines. Other Filipinos are even forced to work abroad with better employers than to get stuck with the oligarch bullies as their employers. The customer may not be always right but businessmen should always treat them right. It's unfair to disconnect the utilities after two consecutive months of non-payment but not to give paying customers the services they deserve. They can also artificially add unnecessary fees in order to oppress the customers. Did they even have to be in politics to be dictators? They only needed to be self-centered hypocrites to do so! Worse, some of them can even manipulate weak-willed politicians by various methods such as bribery. Rather than the governments who are ruling over the businesses - it may become the other way around. The government may not be the best investor but it's still necessary for them to rule fairly over private investors and protect the free market from unjust practices. That is, governments should make rules to allow free-market enterprise while setting rules that promote healthy competition.

Now before you think this post is a call for anti-capitalism - it's not! The oligarchy is capitalism gone wrong. The oligarchy is what happens when morals are thrown out of capitalism. The problem with the oligarchy is not capitalism but commercialism. Capitalism in layman's term is the emphasis of private-owned businesses to satisfy the supply-demand gap. However, commercialism is only focused on profits and nothing more. That's what leftist morons ignore that capitalism is good but capitalism ran by commercialism is what's bad. Commercialism is all about making profits at the expense of quality and even morals. What capitalists tend to ignore is that money becomes worthless when the environment is destroyed. Capitalism can be environmentally-friendly and continuous economic growth can happen if there's environmental preservation. That's why I advocate for environmentally-friendly innovation and technology. Preserving the environment continues to provide the resources necessary for raw materials to print money, power up the power plants, and to make sure people have something to spend money on. But do the oligarchs even care about long-term sustainability? Unfortunately, greedy people don't think long-term as long as they get the money ASAP which is what members of the oligarchy are.

If you want to really be a more democratic country then open up the economy. Having foreign investors to compete against the local investors in a free market enterprise would give any country more choices. When the supply is high then just expect prices to lower down. This would also give citizens of any country better jobs to work in. Local investors will have to either improve their services or consider perishing. The only businesses that truly should die in a free market are those that don't follow safety rules and those that refuse to improve. Commercialized capitalists need to be shut down while capitalists that continue to improve community welfare should be further allowed to do their work. Get it?