Why does Thailand have a higher GDP per capita than the Philippines?

Red Pili Satori

Once again, people answering here are avoiding the deep-seated cultural issues behind the issues facing the Filipino people, because they’re too afraid of offending, but this dishonesty hurts Filipinos in the end, I think.

I’m American, but I’ve known Filipinos for decades now—I’ve lived with them, I speak some Tagalog, and I’ve been living in the Philippines for almost 5 years now. I’ve also visited/lived in several other countries, and studied economics, so I think I have a fairly well-rounded idea of why the Philippines is lagging behind other countries as far as economic growth and per-capita GDP.

The Philippines was once considered to be the “Pearl of the Orient”, and had one of the highest standards of living in Asia (back when it was a territory of the USA), but now it’s one of the poorest countries in Asia, and here is my list of reasons of why I think this is:

• There’s a huge entitlement problem in Filipino culture, and many of them treat their children as an “investments” or “retirement plans”. There’s an element to Filipino culture that expects the most hard-working, most successful members of their society to support everyone else, so what (personal) incentive is there to succeed or work hard?
• Filipino “Crab Mentality” where people feel jealous and resentful of others who are doing well, or pulling themselves out of poverty and despair, and so feel “obligated” to pull them back down.
• Many are educated, and speak at least some English, but many don’t speak English well, and education is not as valued as it is in other Asian countries like Singapore, China, South Korea, Thailand, or Japan.
• There’s a lot of corruption here at almost every level of society. It’s difficult to start a business here without bribing every official you have to deal with, and it’s difficult to trust. You can’t really do business very well if you’re constantly looking out for people trying to screw you.
• Too many Filipinos would rather be “masaya”, sing karaoke, and “jam with alak at palutan” (meaning getting drunk with others off of cheap booze while eating salty snacks like chips) or do TikTok or play Mobile Legends on their phone, than study hard, start a new hobby, read a book, build a resume, start a business, or just get some extra work done. There’s a huge party culture here where one’s social status is often tied to how much (and how often) their money is readily wasted on cheap food and alcohol for others to consume, which ties into my next point…
• They don’t save for a rainy day here. Very few Filipinos have a savings, or even some pocket money for food. There’s a culture here where if you have some food, alcohol, or money you better use it up as fast as you can before someone else does. I think it’s partly a cultural aspect of warm-climate cultures because they don’t have winters, or seasons where food isn’t readily available to be picked of the trees at any given time, and thus there’s a huge “Bahala Na”, “Whatever will be, will be”, or “Que Sera Sera” aspect to their culture where they just accept their situation as “fate”—even if it means starving, or not being able to get the medical attention they need.
• They have high barriers to entry when it comes to starting a business here. Tons of paperwork, licenses, and “red tape” you have to deal with—often times you have to pay off an official or spend lots of money on a lawyer, so this greatly hinders investment.
• They have high import and VAT taxes (12%) here. It’s difficult to start a business if you have to pay high taxes just to import capital goods and raw materials.
• There are barriers to entry to get a job, even when it comes to a minimum wage, service sector job, here. You have to take all these medical exams, drug tests, get background checks, pass other tests, etc.., besides providing a (usually Catholic) Baptismal and birth certificate.
• Imagine if you are in America, and you don’t have much money, but you have to jump through all these hoops just to get a shitty, minimum wage job, but—not only that—you had to pay like $500 in fees, background checks, and medical exams just to get the job. Yes, I know it’s not $500, but paying 1000–2000 PHP here is the equivalent of $500 for an American, considering most only live on a few dollars a day.
• There’s not a lot of skilled labor here. Most people can clean, maybe repair a motorcycle/jeepney, be a security guard, or work as a waitress in a restaurant, but very few people have specialized skills or knowledge in areas like computer science, playing an instrument, chemistry, mathematics, economics, linguistics, law, etc..
• They’re dependent on OFWs (Balikbayan), or foreigners like me, to survive. Why work hard, or pull yourself out of poverty, if you can just guilt, shame, threaten, or manipulate other family members into supporting you? The “Family First” culture here really enables and protects those engaging in this behavior.
• Speaking of OFWs, there’s a huge brain-drain here. How can you grow your economy if all of the hard-working, smart & educated members of your society are off working in other countries?
  
  
  “The Philippines is one of the biggest sources of migrant labour serving the global economy. Today, roughly 11% of the Filipino population is either working or living outside the country. Unfortunately, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are also one of the most mistreated and abused labour forces in the world.”
• Lastly, I want to emphasize again the culture of entitlement here, because I think it’s the #1 reason or part of their culture that’s holding the Philippines back. Vietnam may officially be considered “communist”, but I think, in many ways (and certainly at the familial level), the Philippines is even more socialist or communist. Anytime someone here has a stroke of luck, works hard, gets educated, or has some modicum of ambition, everyone else in the neighborhood (and their dogs) feel entitled to get something from that person and take advantage of it.