Free Things are NEVER Free

ABS-CBN just recently had their first #Harapan2019 to give the senatoriables their chance to communicate to the people their stands on particular issues. I haven't finished watching the two hour harapan (I'm halfway through it) and I'm happy I did this. I got to see certain candidates for what they stand for and who they really are. There are 62 candidates and the first harapan featured 9 of them.

At first I thought the idea of choosing from 62 candidates to pick the best 12 among them would be daunting and difficult to do but out of the 9 candidates in the harapan, I can safely remove 6 of them from my consideration. One, I'm not yet quite sure as she says whatever makes her sound good and I'm not sure how she'll implement her ideas as they tend to contradict each other. And I've decided to support the other two.

Here's a simple criteria I laid down for myself to determine if a candidate is worth my vote. It's based purely on economic reasons. The rationale? If the economy has an inclusive growth, if the rich get richer, so do the poor. One promise I watch out for when considering the candidates is this:

"Are they offering free things?"

Free Education. Free Check-ups. Free Subsidy for so and so. These all sound really good on paper and every candidate who suggested this got resounding applause from the crowd because who doesn't want free things? The question that should immediately follow the promise of free things is, how will we pay for these free things? I can already hear the comical answer of, "No one! It's free!" but the answer usually comes in the form of (drum roll please) higher taxes!

Unfortunately, almost nobody asks the candidates this important question and so we never know how the free things are ever paid for. Money doesn't fall from the sky and so it needs to be collected from the people. Nothing screams anti-poor more than, "Give me your money so I can buy you things you may or may not want!"

So then comes the second part of the answer, "We'll only tax the rich businesses and rich people! Besides, they'll survive." That's true and sounds like a good idea. Let people contribute according to their capacity to contribute... but it's mandatory. There you go! The issue is fixed and it's no longer anti-poor! But what they don't tell you is that this compounds the problem. Businesses, if taxed at a higher rate will raise their prices and guess who now has to pay higher for food and other needs? It's the poor. The rich and middle class will have less problems with the higher prices though. It's the poor that suffers the most.

Many, Filipinos, depend so much on the government. On hand-outs, or subsidies and we all know that money was ours to begin with. We chose to give this to the government in the form of taxes which the politicians can give back to us and when they do, they look like the generous ones. They're giving away money that isn't theirs, in other words.

So the next time a politician offers you free things, DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! For the love of our country, DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! IT'S A LIE! They may not know it's a lie. They may truly believe it's for the people's best interest. In the end, who pays for those free things, is you. In the end, you pay for your healthcare, your food, or education. Nothing is free. The question then becomes, do you trust anyone else to decide for you what to do with your money?

Voting for Senators

Election season is upon us again and this being a midterm election, it's safe to say that this would serve as a good barometer for the performance of President Duterte among the masses. I won't be talking about who I'll be voting for as I haven't decided on that yet.

I'll be talking about how inefficient it is for all Filipinos to be able to vote in all 24 senators (just 12 this midterm election). Honestly, who has really looked at the platforms of all the candidates individually? Most Filipinos have a hard time voting for one person for the positions of President, Governor, Mayor and their representative and we have to vote for 12 senators? The choice for my mayor is a simpler one. All I really need to ask myself is, "Did my mayor perform well the past 3 years?" If yes, he gets my vote. If not, my vote will go to someone else.

It's difficult to find out what senators are doing as individuals and what pieces of legislation they vote for or against during their time as senators. It's easier to keep track of the members of the house of representatives and their voting records because as a voter, you only need to keep track of one person's voting records. With the senators, you need to keep track of at least 12 senators running for reelection plus how everyone else stands on certain issues.

With how the election process is set-up, it's quite possible to not have any senator from Cebu or Davao and several from Metro Manila. One could argue that it shouldn't matter as the 24 senators shouldn't be representing their hometowns but should be representing the Filipino people but I return the question. Do 24 people really feel responsible for the good of the country? Such a wide net is cast that every senator can simply point to the next one and say it was the other guy's fault. A much better system would be one where people need only choose one senator and can hold him accountable.

This ties into the idea of taking away the power of the majority to tyrannize the minority. Our system today makes it very possible to have all 24 seats taken up by one part of the country if they're able to get enough votes. What's even scarier is that technically, all 24 seats could be taken up by one family if they're popular enough.

Remember, power corrupts and if the past few elections are any indication, it can corrupt the voting masses. We have to move away from a pure democracy and we need to do it soon.