So it’s “Labor Day” again this 1st of May in the Philippines. What do the usual suspects who champion the workers’ “fight” have to offer this time in terms of rhetoric? Considering that they’ve milked the easy ones dry — anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism, anti-incumbent-government, higher wages, more jobs, etc. — what else is there?
There is much labor has to offer. Unfortunately, their activists are not among the brightest bulbs in the room. The workers’ “issues” these usual “activists” have worn thin over decades of moronic militantism revolve around entitlement. The battle cry has always been all about what the Filipino worker is entitled to. Nowhere in the labour ideology does the notion of value proposition come up, as in:
What exactly does labor have to offer to earn these “entitlements” they demand?
Communism is the Nirvana of the labour plight. Look closely at how communism works and you will find a system geared singularly towards rewarding on the basis of entitlement. No surprise then that the world’s communist regimes have all but collapsed or are muddling along in degeneracy. When you reward temper tantrums, guess what, you get an unproductive lazy brood of princes and princesses who will be bugging you for dole outs for the rest of their wretched lives.
To this day, the only value proposition Filipinos have to offer to the world’s industrialists is cheap. A very precarious situation, indeed. If cheap Filipino labour suddenly disappears from the face of the earth, hey, no problemo. Advanced nations will manage to find solutions to overcome such a setback and certainly will be able to explore alternative sources. I can have faith in civilisations that’ve survived the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, rebuilt from innumerable wars, pulled themselves together after being nuked, re-invented themselves after being flooded by Asian automobiles and electronics, and keep their noses up despite their politicians.
On the other hand, one wonders whether a society such as ours that had more than enough forests, minerals, rainfall, natural beauty, and exceptional command of the planet’s primary language of knowledge and learning yet remains dreadfully impoverished can prevail. After flattening our forests and kneeling in prayer as our population ballooned to an enormous size, we now talk as if the world owes us a “decent” buck.
It’s quite tragic, actually. With a bit of imagination our so-called “activists” could’ve come up with something a bit more original for a change to enliven the debate surrounding the plight of Filipino workers. Instead all we see is the tired old script; all the lumang tugtugin.
Then again, the real underlying issue surrounding the conditions of Filipino workers has less to do with rhetoric or ideology, and more to do with economics. At the end of the day, where there is an enormous supply that utterly dwarfs demand, guess what, supply gets treated like crap. You can’t repeal that fundamental law of nature. Certainly no amount of legislation will change the maths.
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