A financially inefficient economy

The 1980s classic UK political sit-com series “Yes, Prime Minister” contained a joke, famously defining the nation by British newspaper readerships.

“The Right Honorable Jim Hacker MP: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they should run the country. The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who own the country. The Sun readers don’t care who runs the country as long as she’s got big breasts.”

The same could probably be said in one way or another about the Philippines.

Members and the institutions of the press and media are completely entitled to hold and even promote their own particular political and social agendas. In fact, it benefits the public to hear even passionate views that may feel controversial and uncomfortable. Ultimately though, the primary obligation is a good communication of those ideas. If the reader does not understand what is being said, the press/media organization has failed.

Therefore, in order to capture the widest possible audience, both for information broadcasting purposes and to support the business, the explanation including the language used must be understood by a wide range of people of different economic and social groups.

However, the 21st century has changed the traditional “I read the Financial Times because I am rich” stereotype. All press/media is available cheaply and easily to everyone. As a result, there has been a “dumbing down” of what we are given to read. Almost all the news sounds the same and it seems like only the headlines and the thrust changes the “bias” of the story. Even the analysis has become simplistic to capture as many readers as possible.

The most expensive (don’t ask) chocolate milk comes from St. George, Utah, USA made with special blended Belgian chocolate made by several of the 540 chocolate manufacturers, fresh dairy milk, real sugar, and natural vanilla. The exact recipe is a secret. Each component is worthy of an extensive detailed study and analysis like most of the news we need.

But today’s press/media is too often like the answer to a six-year-old: “Chocolate milk comes from brown cows.” Politicians understand this also. KISS: “Keep It Simple and [often] Stupid.”

The current Philippine inflation rate is not imported. The inflating price of imported oil and oil products, fertilizer, and other products we depend on like dairy foods is “imported.” You could say that some of the food price increases come in part because of “imported” typhoons. A lower value peso might be because we haven’t “imported” much tourism in the past two years.

However, one of the not “Chocolate milk comes from brown cows” answers is because we have a financially inefficient economy.

It is short-term cheaper, but not long term financially efficient, to import thread and clothes from China than to import raw materials and produce the products locally. Our current farming methods can be best seen in “Farmers Working and Resting,” Fernando Amorsolo’s 1955 painting. Mechanized rice farming doubled production efficiency in China. Thailand started its mechanized rice farming program the same time Amorsolo finished his painting. What would the Philippines possibly be like without our world-famous jeepneys and tricycles? Two words: much better.

If you want to be physically fit, take the two-liter soft drink bottle off the dinner table. If you want the economy to grow richer, then public, private, and individual spending must be more efficient.