Barnacles on our ship of state

Title

Creator

Sinco, V. G.

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

United Kingdom of Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 1968.

Walich, Henry C.

Philippines -- Economic conditions -- 1968.

Social development.

Economic development.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

A general explanation of the obstacles in the way of a healthy growth of Philippine society today.

Fulltext

■ A general explanation of the obstacles in the way of a healthy growth of Philippine society today. BARNACLES ON OUR SHIP OF STATE The rise and decline of once great nations have much to show us what basic po licies and practices new and small nations should, in a general way, follow or avoid. Here apparently lies the sig nificance of the statement that history repeats itself. In an article appearing in Newsweek of July 29, 1968, the distinguished economist Henry C. Walich anlyzes the cause of the decline of Britain which until not long ago held the leadership of the world financially and mi litarily. As the nation that started the industrial revolu tion, Britain succeeded in reaching the topmost seat in the industrial society and for about two centuries served as the financial center of the world. She was able to pro duce the most dynamic poli tical and economic system of all her contemporary states; and thus she practi cally enjoyed undisputed ma terial and military predomi nance over the whole earth. Prompted by her success other countries gradually adopted her instruments and methods in the pursuit for material improvement. Thus the results of the British in dustrial revolution spread out over a number of Eu ropean countries, the United States, and Japan. It is largely for this reason that the monopolistic position of Britain started to disap pear. Her financial super iority was thereafter slowly undermined. She suffered a variety of economic re verses of a serious nature. Consequently, she was forced to devaluate her currency several times after World War II and to devaluate again a few months ago. When we remember that the British pound had served as the world standard of the monetary value of other na tional currencies for several decades, the repeated deva luation of the pound has become patent proof that England’s role as a financial giant in the international 2 Panorama economy is practically gone. She has not been able to im prove her balance of pay ments from its unfavorable level in spite of the drastic changes she has been adopt ing in her fiscal and mone tary policies and in spite of the changes in her govern ment policies since the last World War. She has liqui dated her world-wide empire and has withdrawn her mili tary forces from different stations where they proved useful in preserving order and in maintaining peace in many sensitive regions in the globe. She has lost her ter ritorial possessions which once encircled the earth. She no longer occupies the front line position as a sovereign power in the civilized world. In our dream of making our country great, as our President has hoped, we should attempt to discover some of the principal and fundamental causes underly ing her diminishing strength and her decline in material importance. Professor Wallich has presented some tan gible and basic grounds which should interest the Filipino who seriously ex pects to see his country pros perous and to avoid the in sidious elements of weakness at this early history of his nation’s independence. Pro fessor Walich suggests that an increasing sensitiveness of the social conscience could well contribute to the decline of a nation’s power. Per haps we might interpret this term as meaning the super sensitiveness of the social conscience which political and popular sentimentalism sometimes carries to extremes. In the case of Britain, one cause of this condition was the ill-effects or the atroci ties of the laissez faire policy as practiced by her indus trial leaders and traders over generations in the past. They touched, Wallich in sinuates, her sensitive social conscience. As she toned down the harsh effects and ruthless methods of that sys tem, she weakened consider ably the toughening in fluence of "the process of natural selection and the sur vival of the fittest.” The concern for full employment by which everybody is as sured of a job produces an illusion of a happy life and general contentment. It has a tendency to prevent people from resorting to their own individual resources to solve August 1968 3 what are just problem of the normal affairs in one’s life. The welfare state, which England had eventual ly established, lacks much of the challenge which private individuals in a free society should face and answer to show their potentialities and capacities for self-help and independence. Together with it has been her policy of state ownership of several of her basic industries, remov ing them from the hands of private enterprise. All these practically obliged her to adopt an extraordinarily high rate of income taxation which has discouraged the drive for competitive produc tion in the private sector. She must have realized this impractical policy when after this year’s devaluation she decides to adopt sales and indirect taxes to remedy her financial troubles. Professor Wallich sees ana logous conditions in the United States which could be the causes of its growing social and economic problems and which may worsen when they are not recognized and avoided by her leaders on time. The recent American concern “over poverty and discrimination/’ if it should scar beyond sensible limits, may have an effect analogous to the British concern over the oppressive results of un regulated laissez faire on the less economically able ele ments of the country. It could become an incentive to individual thriftlessness and irresponsibility. The examinations, in addition to expanding public sector, the increasing government inter vention in private enterprise, the mounting preference shown by younger Americans for government jobs over posts in private occupations and business — a distinctly notice able phenomenon in American life and society since the last World War — all these demonstrate symp toms of general economic and social debility which tend to reduce gradually the vigor, the initiative, the crea tive urge, and the once vaunted skill and indepen dence of the individual Am erican. The Philippines has not yet grown beyond the preli minary stages of industrial growth. The Filipinos may not succeed to go far beyond these initial stages. They may or may not be able to experience for a long time 4 Panorama a satisfactory social and eco nomic development sufficient to elevate the life of the ma jority of the population. These doubts find some jus tification in the policies and practices of our government which are analogous to those pointed out by Professor Wallich as factors responsi ble for the decline of Britain and for the difficulties which America is now experiencing in international trade and finance. Considering that the Phil ippines has not quite reach ed what is called the take off stage of development, the retarding influence of these practices and policies may not be immediately percep tible. But even just as they are now .being applied, they would prevent her growth, slow down her slight dev elopment, and may even cause a condition of paraly sis in her potentialities for stronger growth. An erro neous conception of social justice could lead the nation to disaster. The danger is perceptible in the practice of Filipino political leaders to imitate and adopt Ameri can social policies and legis lation prematurely and in discriminately. Considering the almost overwhelming ambition and desire of the educated popu lation of our country to en ter politics or to be in the government service; consider ing that only an insignificant fraction of our total popula tion has chosen to go into private business or into other kinds of private occupations because they prefer to be employed in the different branches of our Civil Service, it is not difficult to foresee a dark future for our peo ple who are being habituat ed to prefer a life of ease to one of struggle. Our gov ernment encourages this con dition. No wonder that in the last Civil Service Exam ination over 500,000 persons, male and female, of different ages and varied educational attainments, eagerly took part in all provinces in order to qualify for unfilled govern ment positions. The great anxiety of passing those dozens of other government professional and vocational examinations, is responsible for the frequent irregularities reported as committed by their participants to secure the highly coveted appoint ments to posts in the igovern•ment service. August 1968 5 With our top-heavy bu reaucracy, with Civil Service employees receiving higher salaries than those working in the private sector but with lower qualifications and lighter duties than those de manded in the latter field, the general attraction of the public posts to most people tends to be fairly irresistible. To this should be added the general feeling that public positions are most desirable because they assure security to one’s future. Getting a government job has well-nigh become an obsession of our youth. When all these things are taken into account, when even activities which should be left to the private sector are being, taken over by the government, taxes have to be raised again and again to meet the heavy expenses all these conditions require. This again makes the situa tion more and more unbear able for the private sector, which is being depleted to day of able and enterprising elements. Obviously, taxes have to fall on the few eco nomically productive persons who are naturally made to support the burden of em ploying public servants both the useful and the useless. No amount of miracle rice and wonder corn could be sufficiently produced to pro vide the people with food and other necessities much less to enable them to raise their standard of living when the population is top-heavy with drones who form and exist as barnacles of the ship of state. The higher the salaries of the economically unproductive elements, the heavier the burden of taxa tion becomes; and the larger the number of these super fluous civil and military of ficials and employees, the higher the tide of infla tionary conditions in this country rises. The inevitable result is exorbitant prices of things and harder conditions of life. The eventual result ing situation is a state of in creasing public disorder and crime. Our metropolitan dailies are full of advertisements for men and women needed in private offices, industries, shops, trades, and other ne cessary enterprises. These positions form the active and productive sector of the country. They usually re quire better skills, more tho rough educational prepara Panorama tion, and more serious dedi cation to work and duty than what is demanded in most government jobs. The requirements for civil ser vice eligibility are simple and often merely formal and routinary. In many instances the youth frequently shuns the private occupations and enterprises and prefer to en ter positions in the govern ment civil service or in gov ernment-controlled corpora tions which are often obtainof political leaders and inable through the influence fluential friends. Our pri vate enterprises are being gradually deserted by ele ments who are needed to strengthen the foundations of a democratic society. And the ship of state rapidly and dangerously accumulates bar nacles, so to say, that hinder the normal rate of its pro gress. — V. G. Sihco, August, 15, 1968. SOUND ADVICE Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.... Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.—HAMLET August 1968 7

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