Philippines’ Elite Swallow Country’S New Wealth

[Old55]

Sadly some things never change.

 

 

 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/03/philippines-elite-swallow-countrys-new-wealth/

[Call me bubba]

Just SICK. totally SICK..(no further comment)

[Call me bubba]

as some members do not have fast connection to access the link/url here is

the story

Optimism is soaring that the Philippines is finally becoming an Asian tiger economy,

but critics caution a tiny elite that has long dominated is amassing most of the new wealth while the poor miss out.

President Benigno Aquino has overseen some of the highest growth rates

in the region since he took office in 2010,

while the stock market has hovered in record territory,

credit ratings have improved and debt ratios have dropped.

“The Philippines is no longer the sick man of East Asia, but the rising tiger,”

 

World Bank country director Motoo Konishi told a forum attended by many of Aquino’s economic planning chiefs recently.

However economists say that, despite genuine efforts from Aquino’s team to create inclusive growth, little progress has been made in changing a structure that for decades has allowed one of Asia’s worst rich-poor divides to develop.

“I think it’s obvious to everyone that something is structurally wrong.

The oligarchy has too much control of the country’s resources,” Cielito Habito, a respected former economic planning minister, told AFP.

He presented data to the same economic forum at which Konishi spoke, showing that in 2011 the 40 richest families on the Forbes wealth list accounted for 76 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

 

This was the highest in Asia, compared with Thailand where the top  40 accounted for 33.7 percent of wealth growth, 5.6 percent for Malaysia and just 2.8 percent for Japan, according to Habito.

 

According to the Forbes 2012 annual rich list,

the two wealthiest people in the Philippines, ethnic Chinese magnates Henry Sy and Lucio Tan, were worth a combined $13.6 billion.

This equated to six percent of the entire Philippine economy.

In contrast, about 25 million people, or one quarter of the population, lived on $1 a day or less in 2009, which was little changed from a decade earlier, according to the government’s most recent data.

 

Some of the elite families have dominated since the Spanish colonial era that ended in the late 1800s.

Prominent Spanish names, such as Ayala and Aboitiz, continue to control large chunks of the economy and members of the families are consistent high placers on Forbes’ annual top-40 wealth list.

 

Their business interests range from utilities to property development to banking, telecommunications and the booming business process outsourcing industry.

Many of the ethnic Chinese tycoons, such as Sy and Tan, got their start soon after the country gained post-World War II independence from the United States.

The tendency for the same names to dominate major industries can be partly attributed to government regulations that continue to allow near monopolies and protections for key players.

For decades after independence from the United States in 1946, important sectors such as air transport and telecommunications were under monopoly control, according to a Philippine Institute for Development Studies paper.

 

Despite wide-ranging reforms since 1981, big chunks of the market remain effective oligopolies or cartels, it said.

Habito said the path to riches for the few is also helped by a political culture that allows personal connections to easily open doors.

The Aquino government’s mantra since succeeding graft-tainted Gloria Arroyo’s administration has been good governance and inclusive growth, and their efforts have been applauded by the international community.

The government is spending more than $1 billion this year on one of its signature programmes

to bridge the rich-poor divide.

The conditional cash transfers programme will see 15 million of the nation’s poorest people receive money directly in exchange for going to school and getting proper health care.

However Louie Montemar, a political science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, said little had been done at the top end to impact on the dominance of the elite.

 

“There’s some sense to the argument that we’ve never had a real democracy because only a few have controlled economic power,” Montemar told AFP.

 

"The country dances to the tune of the TINY ELITE"

 

 

Nevertheless, the government and economists say there are many other reforms that can be taken to bring about inclusive growth.

Analysts said the most direct path out of poverty was improving worker skills, using higher tax revenues to boost spending on infrastructure, and rebuilding the country’s manufacturing sector.

 

To this end, many economists endorse the Aquino government’s cash transfer programme as well as reforms to the education system, which include extending the primary and high school system from 10 to 13 years.

 

But for people such as mother-of-five Remy del Rosario, who earns about 1,500 pesos ($36) a week selling cigarettes on a Manila roadside, talk of structural reform and inclusive growth mean little.

With her bus driver husband out of work, the family has no savings and her income is barely enough to cover food, bus fare, and prescription medicines.

“Other people may be better off now, but we see no improvement in our lives,” she said.

[Dave Hounddriver]

If EVER there was an argument to tax the rich, this is it.

[Call me bubba]

If EVER there was an argument to tax the rich, this is it.

it would not work here , as the powers to be .appears to work hand in hand w/those "RICH"

Edited March 4, 2013 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[Jake]

GUNS, GOONS AND GOLD with marbled and gold mahogany table for under the table deals.

 

Improvements?  Not in my lifetime......

[gapotwo]

Has been , and always will be.    Welcome to the wild wild East......  :tiphat:  tanks  EJ.

GUNS, GOONS AND GOLD with marbled and gold mahogany table for under the table deals.

 

Improvements?  Not in my lifetime......

[Mike S]

I like the logic where as you give away money to people who are at least now trying to find work ...... they mentioned a woman who makes p1500 per week and call her poor ..... I know people who only make p2000 per month and feel they are doing good ..... but they will learn here that just like in the US .... if you give away money to supposedly help the poor with out making conditions such as you must be actively seeking employment ..... and you can't lay around the house making babies  drinking red horse and smoking cigarettes or playing cards ..... but then that didn't work in the US and it won't work here ..... with out incentives to find work people like the plastic collectors and so called cigarette venders will be a thing of the past and spend their time standing in line waiting to receive their handouts ..... just like the food stamp program in the US ...... there is a fine example of how not to work a government subsidy program ...... IMHO

 

As to the 40 rich families here controlling 70% of the wealth ..... no different than anywhere else if you consider per population and not just the country .... Rome in it's hay day had the same problem ..... as did Greece .... Japan etc etc ..... how do you stop the problem .... Russia had the answer ... gather up all the wealth and distribute it as you see fit ..... well almost ..... seems the party leaders lived pretty high on the hog while the peasants ate potatoes and drank vodka ..... but in reality it sounded good .... to redistribute the wealth sounds good but not many people with some want to do it ...... even in so-called socialist societies ..... I want you to give up your money but I'm not gonna give up mine ..... :hystery:  :hystery:  

[Dave Hounddriver]

Russia had the answer ... gather up all the wealth and distribute it as you see fit

 

I thought the early Americans had a better idea.  Hold a Boston Tea Party.

 

My suggestion of tax the rich was not meant to also give to the poor (in case you had such perceptions).  I simply mean tax the rich to pay for needed infrastructure and other things that tax money usually buys.  Then comes jobs, then comes middle class wealth, and in the end everybody eats.

[i am bob]

You could change the name of the country in that article to just about any country and the basics would still be valid.

 

There are lots of thoughts and ideas on how to improve and shorten the spread between the rich and poor but I'm kind of in the middle....

 

In the middle as in I think (a) the rich (no matter where you are) should end up paying a higher tax; and (b) the government should give tax breaks if the rich use their money to create more employment solutions (jobs!) with better pay for the poor.  The tax breaks would be only on the money used to increase employment.  Sure they will probably end up getting richer over it but at the same time the poor have a chance to advance in life with more opportunities and definitely more money in their pockets.