Game in the Brain

I was watching the interview analysis of the middle class, and I’m currently still going through the paper here: Wealth Creation for Expanding the Middle Class in the Philippines.
https://www.pids.gov.ph/publication/discussion-papers/wealth-creation-for-expanding-the-middle-class-in-the-philippines

One recurring theme in my studies is populism. It means popular ideas, but the last few economists and news outlets discussing economics have meant something else.

Populism – Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism

“Some economists have used the term in reference to governments which engage in substantial public spending financed by foreign loans, resulting in hyperinflation and emergency measures. In popular discourse — where the term has often been used pejoratively — it has sometimes been used synonymously with demagogy, to describe politicians who present overly simplistic answers to complex questions in a highly emotional manner, or with political opportunism, to characterize politicians who exploit problems and seek to please voters without rational consideration as to the best course of action.”

“Some scholars have linked populist policies to adverse economic outcomes, as ‘economic disintegration, decreasing macroeconomic stability, and the erosion of institutions typically go hand in hand with populist rule.’”

So, what leaves a bitter taste in my mouth is the discussion about Republic Act No. 10931, the law that makes state universities free. We have employed many state university former OJTs (on-the-job trainees) in Comfac-IT.

I want to draw attention to the particular aspect of failing while trying to do good. When I became the IT Director, I kept hearing, “Don’t do that. We tried, and we could never get it to work.” My anti-authority streak didn’t take that well, especially since no one kept documentation of how they tried and why it failed.

Note that we tried to make our own ERP and spent 20M trying—while it cost us only 20k to get the first ERPNext server deployed. (But the project has cost around 0.8M as of last April and is probably closer to 1.5M by now since 2020.)

That’s why I made it a point to create tutorials for everything I’m capable of doing and share them with my staff. I love that my staff have done the same. There’s no trace of what failed or why it failed in the past, so people gave up and started believing the worst in others.

The law could have been better written, but I’m not going to backseat-drive lawmakers who had to get it passed under difficult circumstances. Still, I see its imperfections—the desperation and the difficulty of the situation.

I think I was offered the chance to teach in PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) because they knew the money didn’t matter to me. In the video, the proponent of the middle-class analysis believed RA 10931 was a populist law, as economists define it: a short-sighted, emotional argument made to gain popular support.

You know me and costs—and if you’ve followed my posts, you know I want to create sustainable good. We are worse off if every good person becomes a martyr rather than works toward sustaining positive change.

But here’s a story:

I was set to attend events with NU (National University) and PUP. Parking was hell—I had to park 1.4 km away in Isetan Mall when I last drove there (a very old mall with very different architecture). So, I chose to take a Grab instead.

On my way from NU to PUP, the Grab driver asked why I went there. I explained that I was helping with NU’s curriculum and attending an event at PUP to thank their HTE (Host Training Establishment) partners. He then asked me what a computer engineer does. During our conversation, it seemed he wanted his son to quit studying computer engineering.

But here’s what clicked: because there was no tuition fee, his son could attend school. If there had been tuition, his son wouldn’t have had the chance. The dad didn’t believe in the importance of the degree, and I probably failed to explain it well. He seemed to have made up his mind.

I likely sounded like just another egghead, and I couldn’t convey how essential computer engineers are if we want to attract electronics and computer manufacturing to the Philippines.

Still, that experience—that anecdote—and my own cost-of-living calculations tell me this:
While the quality of facilities and the lives of teachers and schools may have gone down because of funding gaps (not to mention the 20% budget cut for SUCs in 2025), his son at least had a chance at an education.

I can’t backseat-drive the lawmakers. We’re not living under leaders like Vico Sotto or Leni Robredo, who might have reduced corruption. For instance, Vico fixed the bidding process and implemented transparency measures under RA 9184 (a well-written law I’ve also used). I believe that what we lose in corruption could have paid for a transformative experience. But we’re in the dark timeline.

The people who tried and got something out of this law need society to come around and help. I think of our overworked board members—like Ma’am Florian—who put in 4-8 hours a week of unpaid work while people easily disparage their efforts.

We are supposed to help.

Populism can promote fascism, as we saw in the U.S. It can also push socialist good or promote fascist solutions—preying on the vulnerable and scapegoating the weak.

Remember: we almost never change anyone’s mind. The most we can do is give people better options. Their values don’t change, but their circumstances and choices can.

Frame decisions not as reflections of their values but as better options in their current circumstances. Don’t appeal to their virtues; work with their self-interest. For good to win, we need to reorder and restructure systems so that it’s in people’s best interest to choose better options over the status quo.

People will be flawed, selfish, and even self-harming. Give them a better option—but don’t ask them to change. Change happens when they choose better options over time and acclimate to the benefits.

Repeated exposure to healthier, better environments leads to habits that quietly rewrite internal narratives. People will come to believe they were good all along.