Reaction Paper: Philippine's Society and Political Corruption

What  is Political Corruption means?

 This corruption means the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties.

Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities.

The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.

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Corruption started in the Philippines since the time of our colonial era of our invaders and we all know that corruption is one of the biggest problem in our country yet this is also the problem that is impossible to solve. why? because corruption is very rampant not only in the Government but also in the society. It is not only done by Political people but it also done by ordinary people thus corruption exist everywhere. For example, In terms of Bribery. If i was caught by traffic officer and in order to arrange everything without any problems i would probably give bribe to it in exchange  to my license. Although the officer is not asking for bribe, I was the one who indeed give him bribe so that i can get my license as easy as that. In this case, i was the corrupt one. I corrupted the official by means of my money and this only shows that money so powerful that it can buy everything legal or illegal. This example just shows an ordinary people can also do corruption but in reverse in the situation it will become a political corruption if the officer himself ask for bribe and because he is an official, you also give. That is a form of political corruption, that uses his/her power to over rule the ordinary people. Another is the officers in some government offices, to be specific in LTO. There are some officials or employees that can process your documents faster than the normal process and all you have to do is to pay them as a form of bribery. In voting, particularly in our elections, vote buying is present. right? this is also a form of corruption. More and more problem related to corruption are present is just happen that we do not notice them yet. See the problem?, corruption is everywhere. I don't know when will this corruption thing will be gone in our economy since a lot of Filipino people now a days were infected by this kind of virus and it keeps growing larger and larger. Furthermore, I would like to address this to all Filipino that there will be no corrupt officials if we simply don't try to corrupt them. If we just  simply follow the rules and do what is right. I don't know but maybe corruption may somehow vanish.

- Cyrus Santonil

Reaction Paper for December

Poverty in Philippines

 Poverty is a significant problem, and in combination with high income inequality, it poses a serious threat to stability in the Philippines. The proportion of the population living below US$1.25 a day in 2006 was 23 per cent or around 20 million people. At the same time, about 44 per cent or over 40 million Filipinos were living on less than US$2 a day. While the Philippines were able to reduce poverty incidence from as high as 30 per cent in the early 1990s, the actual number of people living in poverty has increased over the last two decades. The global food and fuel price crises in 2007 and 2008, and the global economic crisis that followed, are estimated to have pushed even more people into poverty.

Economic growth in the Philippines has been unable to lift many of the rural poor out of poverty who traditionally rely on the agricultural sector for employment and typically have less access to basic services, lower levels of education and larger families to support. Even during periods of stronger economic growth, such as 2004–2008, poverty continued to rise. Various factors have contributed to the lack of progress on poverty reduction in the Philippines. 

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Reaction

We all know that poverty is like a basic economic problem for every country but here in Philippines, poverty is growing and it is because of some reasons such as; high population growth, income inequality and inability of the government to provide sufficient basic services, especially to people in poorer remote region. As we noticed, people in the remote areas have high population and this is resulting to increase of poverty. Thus, the government should guide them or give them a free family planning so that they will know the consequences of having too much children. But if the government will disregard these issues many children will suffer and eventually become uneducated person.

Well, if only the government provide basic services for the people in remote region probably poverty will decrease. However, we have also one economic problem that prevents the solution for poverty and that is Corruption, that government officials own the money instead of using it to provide basic services for the people. With this in mind, I feel sorry for those people in remote areas because we all know that corruption which is also one reason why poverty exists is not that easy to remove in our society particularly in our Government.

--cyrus santonil

chap 1 review Answer

1. Government policies designed to promote efficiency:
a. usually do so at the expense of equity.  

2. All of the following can be considered a student's costs of going to college, EXCEPT:
c. room and board (that costs her about the same as she was paying before entering college). 

3. An airline's plane from Los Angeles to New York is about to take off, but it still has a few seats empty. If the average cost per seat is $500, what price should the airline charge passengers in standby to fill in those remaining seats? (Consider that quantitative decisions are made at the margin)
c. Any price above zero that will entice standby passengers to take the flight.

4.  The Federal government enacted regulation in the 1960s requiring people to wear seatbelts in their cars. All of the following resulted from this regulation, EXCEPT:
 c. fewer pedestrians were killed in car accidents. 

5. When two persons trade goods:
b. both persons usually gain from the exchange. 

6. In a market economy, the decisions of what and how much to produce are made by:
b. all producers and consumers.  

7. Even though markets do a great job in organizing economic activity, governments are needed to do all of the following EXCEPT:
d. decide what and how much should be produced.  

8. Living standards in the United States have risen tremendously over the years, mainly due to:
a. relentless increases in the productivity of labor over the years. 

9. Rapid and persistent inflation occurs mainly due to:
c. rapid increases in the quantity of money in the economy.  

10. A government that implements a policy designed to reduce inflation can expect unemployment to:

a. increase in the short-run  

chap 2 review Answer

1. Which of the following is FALSE, regarding economics as a science?
b. It is difficult to conduct experiments in economic matters.  

2. Economists use assumptions in order to:
 c. simplify economic theories, so as to make it possible to answer economic questions.

3. Economic models are:
 d. all of the other options are true

4. All of the following are characteristics of the Circular Flow Model of the economy, EXCEPT:
c. the model describes two circular flows: one for inputs and one for resources. 

5. The circular flow model of the economy demonstrates that:
a. the economy actually has only two sectors: firms and households.

6. Which of the following is true regarding the Production Possibilities Frontier Model of the economy?
a. Any point along the PPF represents an efficient level of production

7. Economic growth in the economy can be portrayed in the Production Possibilities Frontier model as a:
b. shift of the PPF away from the origin.  

8. Microeconomics is the study of:
c. how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets. 

9. Which of the following is an example of a normative statement?
b. The government should increase spending during recessions, so that the economy recovers quickly. 

10. Economists tend to disagree with each because:
d. all the other options are true

chap 3 review Answer

1. The production possibilities frontiers used to explain trade in the text are straight lines because:
ans: 
A. the author assumes the farmers can switch at a constant rate from producing meat to producing potatoes. 

2. The principle of Absolute Advantage refers to the situation in which one producer:
ans: 
B. can produce a good using fewer resources than other producers. 

3. The principle of Comparative Advantage refers to the situation in which one producer:
ans:
A. has a lower opportunity cost than other producers in the production of a good. 

4. Which of the following is true regarding the principle of Absolute Advantage?
ans:
C. Nations should specialize in producing those goods for which they have an Absolute Advantage. 

5. Which of the following is true regarding the principle of Comparative Advantage?
ans:
B. Nations should specialize in producing those goods for which they have the lowest opportunity cost. 

6. The boy next door has offered to mow Tiger Woods' lawn. It will take this boy twice as long as Tiger Woods to mow the lawn. Would Tiger Woods let the boy mow his lawn, instead of doing it himself?
ans:
A. Yes, as long as the boy's opportunity cost is less than half of Tiger Woods' opportunity cost. 

7. Suppose that engaging in free trade means we have to stop making cars, which will cause bankruptcies and will make people lose their jobs. Is it still worth having free trade?
ans:
B. Yes, because the gains outweigh the losses: new businesses and new jobs will flourish in other industries. 

8. Suppose that Jill can type 10 pages per hour in the computer, while Jim can only type 8. Further suppose that Jill can review 5 articles per hour while Jim can only review 2. If they are working on a final project together, who should specialize in what task in order to be as productive as possible?
ans:
B. Jill should specialize in reviewing articles and Jim in typing. 

9. Suppose that Jill can type 10 pages per hour in the computer, while Jim can only type 8. Further suppose that Jill can review 5 articles per hour while Jim can only review 2. Based on this, we can say that:
ans:
B. Jill has an absolute advantage over Jim in reviewing articles

10. The principle of Comparative Advantage argues all of the following, EXCEPT:
ans:
 C. free trade allows producers to specialize.