Fetalvero: The tale of two poles

THE Aquino administration is reassessing the operations of government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). In retrospect, former president Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorial regime took over several industries including ABS-CBN. History taught us that government control posed some problems.

Control translated to mean power and applied in both economics and politics simply spells catastrophe in a corrupt nation like ours. President Noynoy Aquino is mulling the idea of private and public partnership vis-à-vis certain aspects that directly affect our country’s finances.

Adam Smith, a pioneer in political economics, promoted the benefits of competition and division of labor in ensuring that scarce resources are turned into valuable goods and services in the most efficient way possible.

He presented several views on how economics and politics are interrelated. Smith cited that the nationalists have favored policies that are historically aggressive in a sense that trade tariffs are employed to advantage domestic industry at the expense of competitors based in foreign nations.

The nationalists view accepts the power of free markets to deliver favorable outcomes provided they are able to exert some regulatory control.

He explained: “The liberals believe in freedom for private powers at the expense of public power (the government).

Their stance is “markets free from distortions caused by government controls and regulations will naturally harmonize demand and supply of scarce resources resulting in the best possible outcome for world population at large.” “The Liberals favored policy is minimal or zero government control and regulation of trade.

They call for the privatization of any organizations producing exportable goods”, Smith added. What our government has done so far is political pandering that depleted our country’s resources and emptied the two bottles of more than five million Filipinos. Are we for adopting the liberalists’ point of view or that of the nationalists’? How do we want to recover from our economic crisis?

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