Philippine Economy by: Julianne Marie T. Brazil

Unit 8

           For many years now, the need for deepening economic reforms has been a major preoccupation among those who see that our economy has yet to live up to its potential. The potential is there. The ability to push the envelope of economic change toward that potential exists provided that the barriers to investment and to higher productivity are removed.

           We, Filipinos, experience scarcity because our wants and needs are greater than the resources available to satisfy us. Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human wants in a world of limited resources. It states that society has insufficient productive resources to fulfill all human wants and needs. There are two bases of economy. A command economy is organized by government officials who also own and direct the factors of production. And the market-based is not organized by any central authority and is determined by the supply and demand of goods and services.

The Modes of Production in the History of Humanity:

Primitive communism-There would be no private property, which is distinguished from personal property. Characterizes Paleolithic and Neolithic Age.
Asiatic Mode- ruled by a class professed by a god.
Ancient Mode- Similar to the Asiatic mode, but differentiated in that the form of property is the direct possession of individual human beings.
Feudalism- The primary form of property is the possession of land in reciprocal contract relations: the possession of human beings as peasants or serfs is dependent upon their being entailed upon the land.
Capitalism- is usually associated with the emergence of modern industrial society.
Socialism- is the post-capitalist economic system that emerges when the accumulation of capital is no longer sustainable due to falling rates of profit in (real) production, and social conflict arising from the contradictions between the level of technology and automation in the economy with the capitalist form of social organization.
Communism- refer to a hypothetical future state of affairs where the good of all is obtained by scientific management (hence the name "scientific socialism") to obtain democratically determined social goals.

          The Philippine politics is based on personalities is the root cause of all evil. But I suppose this is not something that God willed for the Filipino people. We can point to history, culture and tradition as to why the future of our children has been compromised.

The 5 types of political system:
Authoritarianism- the people have no power or representation and it is characterized by absolute or blind obedience to authority.
Monarchy- is a government controlled by a king or queen determined by a predisposed line of sovereignty.
Democracy- is a form of government in which the citizens create and vote for laws directly or indirectly via representatives which can be direct democracy or representative democracy.
Republic- is a form of government or country [1] in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body.
Communism- is a social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society

          To privatize, or not to privatize, this is a fundamental question facing the Philippines, and many other similarly-situated emerging markets, which face increasingly unaffordable public services after decades of aggressive privatization. Many are beginning to ask whether the state should (once again) play a more central role in providing public welfare, ensuring that market forces are agents of competitive production rather than regulatory manipulation.
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations typically in the economic sphere. It is the undoing or repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. For example the Oil Deregulation Law of the Philippines.

          The external debt of the Philippines is the amount owed by the government of the Philippines to foreign creditors. Under Republic Act 6142 of 1970, all external borrowing by the public and the private sector with the exception of commercial bank sector must be approved by the Monetary Board. The Management of External Debts and Investment Accounts Department (MEDIAD) within the BSP screened application for all external borrowings and maintained statistics on the country’s external debt; this then was a limitation on debt service and on total external indebtedness.

         Philippine political system has been tagged to be corrupt and hopeless. Politics is unhealthy and rights are abused. Social justice seems to be a faraway dream. And the observance of the law seems ruthless. The youth is said to be the catalyst of change. It is said that the youth is the hope of changing and bringing an ideal system. But how exactly can the youth change the present system when he is surrounded by a corrupt system? How can he do it when not all can study and get themselves involved in worthy activities? How can he do his advocacies when his freedom are suppressed? How can the youth fight the pain of a corrupt system and maintain his idealism for an ideal system? Response comes out of our knowledge and wisdom whereas reaction just out of our emotions and impulses. Let's stop reacting and start responding.