Amid COVID19 Outbreak, Printing Money is an Overlooked Solution
“We can use this crisis as an opportunity to evolve the educational system, to change the mindset and mentality from supplying cheap labor for the other countries to producing and exporting high-value services and goods to the world. In doing so, we can start changing Philippine history for the better.”
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas should start printing money asap! And that money should be used to support the public food and health needs of the country.
Public safety is the major asset of any nation. I am sure that possible economic losses, an increase in crime rates, health problems caused by lack of nutrition and hygiene could be considered as force majeure cases for money printing authorization.
Another point of view, since the money will be used for essential needs, it will be actively roaming money and not passive or sleeping money.
Yes, the Philippine Peso will lose some value with this measure. But, we can solve that problem after we solve this crisis. You wonder how? Let me explain.
In the last 10 years, Philippine Peso lost only 10 % value against the Dollar while Brazilian Real lost 300% and Turkish Liras lost 400%. However, I don’t think the general Filipino income level changed a lot, unlike Brazil and Turkey.
Brazilian GDP per capita was 19,866 Brazilian Real in 2010 and now it is 47,435 Brazilian Real. That is a 138.78% increase in GDP per capita.
GDP per Capita in Turkey was 16,143 Turkish Liras in 2010 and now it is 58,285 Turkish Liras. That is a 261.05% increase in GDP per Capita.
What about the Philippines? It was 96,000 Pesos in 2010 and now it is 170,000 Pesos, which is a 77.08% increase. Despite the resilience of the currency against the USD, the Philippines hasn’t been able to match the growth rates of other developing countries.
We have an advantage and more space to move compared to other developing countries. Hence, we ought to explore all countermeasures against the current emergency we are in.
The public can use that printed money for their urgent needs. After this pandemic, we can find a way to collect the emulsion amount back slowly without damaging the Philippine economy.
The problem of the Philippine economy is not the currency rate or the strength of Peso. There are 3 major structural problems in the Philippine economy.
- Unfair or non-homogeneous distribution of income
- Not able to produce high-value goods or services.
- The majority of the public has concerns about the accountability of the services.
Let me start with the third point because this is a subject which Filipinos should resolve within themselves so bonds between government organizations and citizens can grow stronger.
While most people feel that the government will need to do a better job in earning public trust, the rising popularity of some new mayors today is a welcome sign that government officials are striving to do just that. So the future may not be as dark as what most people assume and as a nation.
Also, Filipinos should avoid the habit of demonizing others with different political views, The only way to get more success out of elections moving forward is by having open and civil discussions in topics like politics.
Learning to be civil is a good first step towards building societal bonds to improve trust between citizens and government organizations.
Regarding the distribution of income, if the gap between the poor and rich is getting wider, the educational level of the poor people is getting lower because they are spending more on survival. As a result, it makes them poorer because they are unable to learn the necessary knowledge to upskill.
Of course, there are few or a handful of other cases of success stories, but it is not enough to change the general trend in the Philippines.
And if you have a higher population on survival mode, it means the number of the well-educated population is getting lower. By the way, I am not speaking about degrees earned in school. I am speaking about the quality of the education but that’s the subject of another article.
If you don’t have enough educated people entering the workforce, more of society ends up working on the production of cheaper services and products. And guess what? More people end up in survival mode and the circle goes on!
I think we can use this pandemic situation as a reset button to fix our structural problems.
We can make our educational system, facilities, and curriculum better. We can discuss how we can make dramatic changes to produce high-value services and goods. We can support enterprises to produce high-value products and export them the way Estonia did, like Chile did, as Turkey did, and like Belarus did.
We can use this crisis as an opportunity to evolve the educational system, to change the mindset and mentality from supplying cheap labor for the other countries to producing and exporting high-value services and goods to the world. In doing so, we can start changing Philippine history for the better.
I am telling you with my heart. I know that Filipinos are not stupid. Filipinos are not lazy.
As someone who has lived in 9 countries around the world, I see that Filipinos are the nicest, most polite, and most hardworking people. They love to learn. But the current system is geared towards preparing people to do processing jobs.
To improve income distribution, we need a system that prepares local talent and organizations to produce high-value services and goods.
Learn how we can make this system the new reality
We can reset it now. We are ready for the Economic Revolution of the Philippines! Are you?