The biggest irony in Philippine society and politics is this: it is a given that government, in general, is incompetent at best and corrupt at worst. People do not dispute this and yet, despite the premise, people continue to give the government more and more duties, responsibilities and necessarily, more power to fulfill them.
The reason I point this out is because I saw a news segment on TV the other day about the income tax issue. The Filipino is the most heavily taxed person in South East Asia. When pressed about the clamor to reduce income tax rates, the Commissioner of the BIR, Kim Henares, merely shrugged it off and insisted that the present rates be maintained to keep up government spending on the supposedly wonderful programs it has.
Ah yes, government spending. One need not look far to see just how the government thoughtlessly spends other people's money like nothing. Just the other day, two children died in a cave in. Apparently, the family had been operating an illegal limestone quarry and the recent rainfalls may have caused it to collapse when the children were playing (or possibly working as illegal child labor) inside. Of course, the family is dirt poor and supposedly sympathetic. The local government already pledged them cash assistance. This doesn't even include the mandatory "burial assistance" or whatever other cash assistance programs there are.
Whenever there's a fire in a squatters area, you have the cash assistance. When someone dies, you get cash assistance. If you have old people lying around, there's cash assistance to the elderly. Some local governments can get really creative. Binay likes to brag, for example, that Makati hands out free cakes to seniors on their birthdays. Sometimes the government just gives you money, period! Some call it promoting the public welfare, I call it bribery.
You may think me heartless but don't misunderstand. The common good is a worthwhile goal of government. However, I think we have gone well past the point of reasonable. Nothing wrong with a helping hand but the government is acting like some kind of European welfare state when its clearly beyond its means to help absolutely everyone that comes to its doorstep with an empty bowl. It's not so much that the government steps in like a sugar daddy whenever people need something, rather, it's the fact that people are so helpless in the first place and have been trained and conditioned to expect their problems to be solved by the government.
The poor should be helped but why are there so many poor people in the first place? It would be better to focus on providing opportunities for people to succeed instead of the rather undignified solution of just giving them money. You know the old canard about teaching a man to fish. Never mind. Nobody asks why. Just give 'em money and tell them to never forget who gave it to them when they go into the polling booth. So it goes. The people are made dependents of the state. Politicians promise them the moon and bribe them before and after the elections with all sorts of programs - the kind of programs Kim talks about. Then elections become a contest of Santa Clauses on who can best pilfer the common coffers for the benefit of the masses.
But the programs don't actually lift people out of poverty. That's why there are so many poor people in the first place. It's a group that doesn't (mustn't) be reduced. All the programs do is placate the masses just enough to prevent revolution. These programs cost money and that means high taxes. Even if a poor person were to work very hard to move up in life, he would eventually hit the tax wall and finally go from being a parasite to a host. It's unlikely he'll ever reach the upper echelons of say, the Makati Business Club. Majority of us must be kept miserable for this whole thing to work.
Just look at the presidential debates, like the one yesterday. Politicians talking about free healthcare, free services and all sorts of goodies they can provide. Nobody asks about the cost because the answer is deadlier to a politician than anything Duterte can ever say. It will be paid for by the people's taxes. That's why the income tax is only talked about as briefly as possible by all politicians to the point that it's just lip service. The tax rates, all of them, including the VAT and corporate rates, are likely to stay where they are if we're going to keep this miserable enterprise going.
There's another reason as well. Majority of Filipinos don't care about the income tax because they're too poor to fall into the tax brackets. It's only the middle class who are hurt by this. The rich? Not so much. The middle class doesn't win elections; the masses win elections and the masses want you to subsidize them and the government is all too happy and willing to see it happen.
Back to the central irony. The bloated monster that everyone looks to to solve their problems is the same monster that's causing them. We solve the people's hunger by feeding them their own flesh. It's brilliant. People are dependent and kept so by the government subsidizing their misery. The government sucks up the people's wealth thus, making sure nobody rises too high above his station. The rich, the same old names who are already established, don't have to worry about competition (local or abroad) and can afford to opt out and live in luxury or even rig the game in their favor. Everyone needs money and the rich can play the game just as well as the local slime-ball politician.
It's a society begging for release, one way or another.
No comments:
Post a Comment