A Mediocre: Who's to blame?

The Government

Basically the Philippine have a market economy or free enterprise economy. This mean there are economic freedoms like free competition, free choice of investments and prices are determined by the interaction of demand and supply. And thus, the role of the government is to extend financial and technical assistance and to formulate policies that are conducive to economic growth. I can see today's Philippine government pursuit in formulate growth policy, but unfortunately the economy has not improved much in terms of the interests of the masses because of the issue of corruption.

Colonial Mentality: An Overview

The Philippine was a slave of three colonial masters; the United States , Japan and Spain . Nevertheless, the Chinese dominated the retail trade even before the Spaniard time.

Many Filipinos thought that the coming of the Americans was a great blessing under the American regime. But the tremendous growth of factories in the United States at that time created problems such as where to sell their surplus factory products and where to get their raw materials. And to solve these, United States colonized territories like the Philippines . US set up free trade thus all Americans goods in unlimited quantities entered the Philippines free of trade and thus the beginning of foreigners controlling the economy from production to marketing. It appears that colonial mentality still infused in the minds and actions of many Filipinos. Such attitude is clearly counter-productive as far as Philippine economy is concerned. Pride and preference for foreign goods, especially Americans products are still strong in the consumer behavior in the Philippines .

Filipinos: Lack of Entrepreneurial Spirit

In economic development, the bottom line is the quality of the people of a given country. Knowledge, skills and values are the main determinants of economic growth. The country itself is poor because of its citizens. Some countries have poor natural resources and yet they are rich. Filipinos prefer to be the servants of the rich people. I still remember of a certain issue that the term “Filipina”, which refers to female citizens in the Philippines was used as synonyms for a servant in other country. Filipinos prefer to build the roads and buildings of the Middle East , teaching the students of some Asian and African countries. They provide medical services to the United States hospitals. Such treasures of human resources should have been utilized for our own economic development.

The real and enduring wealth of any country is its people. Their values, skills, and knowledge make the difference. The United States is a great country because the values of the people, not to mention their skills and knowledge contribute to its greatness. The same is true in the case of Japan .

Options

The educational system should also emphasize in its curriculum the importance of local entrepreneurship. Big and large, Filipinos are employee-oriented, especially for white-collar jobs. They are not risk takers. Many of them are afraid to put up their own business because of the possibility of bankruptcy. Such lack of entrepreneurial spirit, particularly among Filipinos professionals, has encouraged foreigners to take advantage their cheap labor and rich natural resources. They are now the one who are rich.

In view of the very limited access to economic opportunities by the masses, a better option is to develop an entrepreneurial class. With t he strong supports of the government and the private sectors, small scale enterprises can flourish in the countryside. Such canon-based projects can generate jobs and opportunities for a few risk-takers and income for the poor. This is all what they need to uplift their social and economic conditions.