The Immunity of Hungry Artists

The Immunity of Hungry Artists
(The Economics of Art and the Art of Economics: The Case of the Filipinos and the Philippine Economy)


Ronilo Balbieran, School of Economics, University of Asia and the Pacific
Christian Vallez, Arts and Culture Asia, Inc.
John Joseph Rimando, Alagad ng Sining, Talino, Imahinasyon, at Galing


This first quarter of the year, our economy has been faced with challenges and depressing projections by prophets of doom. Foreign analysts and economists confidently predict that our country will slow down in growth and will suffer as an effect of the most recent global financial crisis. Investors are anxious, the public at large is afraid. We are now constantly haunted by an impending recession in our country that has a very weak basis, if any at all.

The virus of recession

Dr. Emilio Antonio Jr. explains that the worldwide financial crisis threatens to infect us with its economic virus. And “common” economic sense tells us that if the United States sneezes, the third world will catch flu. However, despite these economic anxieties, the symptoms never came, the virus barely touched our economic health. We come almost unscathed amidst the domino effect where economies after economies are melting down.

Still, despite our ability to survive and be virtually immune from this crisis, the common Filipino still struggles to make ends meet. What probably saved us from definite economic depression is our positive outlook and attitude towards life. Or in macroeconomic jargons, Filipinos have a high marginal propensity to consume, and the money in our country has a high velocity, and thus Keynesian multipliers are very high.

Unquestionably, we are a resilient people. Our creativity and happy disposition not only allow us to survive, but bring us to uncharted depths of possibilities. Economic physicians and business gurus have diagnosed the world and put the blame on the culture of greed and hatred that has persisted and grown due to abuses in media, entertainment, government, and other fields. The Filipino’s core, his being amorous, his loving disposition and his natural respect for human life is being challenged by evils in the guise of tolerance, financial stability and wealth, and false human development.

The Art of Economics and the Economics of Art

Economics, according to Dr. Villegas, is the science of allocation and expansion of scarce resources to satisfy man’s unlimited, multiple, competing needs and wants. Simplified, it is all about maximization and optimization of what you have and what you want… at the same time. Insisting on what one desires (WANT to choose), without the ability to afford them, is called “wish” or “wishful thinking.” On the other hand, insisting on choosing/buying things/acitivities just because you can afford (CAN choose) is called either “torture” or “stupidity”. Imagine getting married to a person just because you can marry him/her, without wanting to marry him/her. That is torture and stupidity.

Hence, the coinage of a term that is unique only to the field of economics: Satisfice. This is the marriage of two words “Suffice” and “Satisfy” to illustrate how life is a constant journey towards satisfaction with bottlenecks of budget constraints.

We may not be able to buy or acquire all the things we want, but that does not mean that life is meaningless. It only means that we have to be creative enough to make do (and make the most) with what we have, and later on, be creative enough to expand our resources. Therefore, though economics is seen as a science of optimization of allocation, it is actually an artistic endeavor. As Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize Awardee in Economics, put it, Economics is the art of making the most out of life.

Economics is not just a subject, nor is it a simple professional course. Economics is both a way of thinking and a way of life. It is as fundamental as logic and grammar, without which, a sensible and intelligible decision cannot be made. It is a science that artistically combines all other sciences and the arts to explain and prescribe human decisions. Thus, from the point of view of economics, artists are most probably economists. Both the artist and the economist are fully aware that there are unlimited desires to be expressed and to be fulfilled. But they are also fully aware that their resources are scarce, that their time is limited, that their media are limited, and so on. There are deadlines, there are budgets, and there are constraints. But this is not the end of the world. In fact, it is the beginning of the real world—a world of balance, a world of creative quests for the unreachable unlimited happiness.


The Filipino as an Artist

The Filipinos find themselves a respite from all these in arts and entertainment. In as much as economics is one of the fundamentals of society, art has also become so ingrained in the social fiber that any society or culture cannot possibly flourish without it.
Economics and the Arts find intersections in so many levels. Erwin Panofsky once wrote that the task of art history as a humanistic discipline is to “enliven what otherwise would remain dead.”
The flu that our economy is expecting when the US economy sneezed is actually more than just our run-off-the-mill, garden-variety flu. As was mentioned earlier, the sickness is more fundamental as greed. Filipinos are immune to this, if not, they at least find the antidote to this in the arts.

Greed can never breed art. And we have, starving and struggling artists that we are, produced and appreciated art in its various faces—theater, paintings, sculpture, architecture, dance, music, and poetry. Our art scene is slowly holding its ground as we move towards another golden age in the arts. Art can only flourish in purity of intention, and our national consciousness at least, has no room for greed.

Some might see art as an escapist’s solution to social degeneration brought about by economic depression. It may be true that art transports us to an imagined world, away from the challenges of real life. But beyond the fantastic escapist character of art, more than anything, it provides us a mirror to reality and allows us to dig deeper and see the essential and fundamental. Art, with all its emblazoned reality, leads us to the truth, the transcendentals, and closer to our inner realities. Art brings us back to the humanity that we are slowly losing while we get lost in the dirty and complex labyrinth of practical life. Not that art is impractical. Art, in fact, becomes more practical than ever, as it demands us to be.


The Immunity of the Filipinos and the Philippine Economy

Filipinos are beautiful people as well as appreciators of beauty. Moreover, the Filipino is aware that beauty is the last bastion of their values. Beauty saves. Beauty will save the Filipinos. Beauty will save the world (Dostoevsky, The Idiot).

Beauty. Unconventional as it may sound, it is that specific characteristic that we Filipino’s possess, and unfortunately do not realize, that will save us at the end of the day. Our desire for that which is beyond the superficial is what drives our economy to greater heights, and lows, much more than we would recognize. We have seen and heard from our brothers and sisters how difficult and depressing the situation in other countries is. The comparisons and the differences that we have seen and long known, have only been further magnified by the recent economic disturbances all over the world. And yet, we still wonder why we are the valedictorian economy amongst our neighbors?

Global media has pervaded and continuously persuade us that we have reached an all time low and that the answer to this is but a seemingly simple solution detached from that which we hold dear to ourselves. Ingrained in our daily routine is the key to global stability. Our sense of community is that which binds us and uplifts us in whatever situation we find ourselves, may it be beneficial or harmful. It is this same ingenuity that enables us to survive these trying times. Where else can you find the “tingi-tingi” in our supermarkets and “sari-sari” stores? Where else can you prove the existence of corrupt officials being able to hide millions and billions over the years, only to be discovered and forgotten over the course of a few months? Where else can you find a family of fifteen live on five-hundred pesos a day? Tragic as it may sound, this is undeniable proof of the resistance and resilience of the Filipino in any obstacle that comes his way. Rich or poor, democratic or communist, we all share the same sentiments. Family. Community. Optimism. It is this same sense of “fight” that we all dare to brave the unknown and challenge the fates. It is that which drives us, as a nation, as a people, as an individual, to tread that path of anxiety and shout to the world that no matter the difficulties, no matter the predicaments that we face, natural or economic, we face it with a smile.

The Filipino smile is that which conquers everything else. In the face of fear, uncertainty, depression, loss and anxiety, it is our smile that delivers us from impending doom. The same smile that has made our country known all over the world is that same smile which the world must emulate. The world MUST realize that smiling is an art; an art that we Filipinos have mastered and perfected from generation to generation. Do not confuse this with blissful forgetfulness for that is miles away from the true meaning of the word. To smile, in the truest sense, is to accept reality as it is and to live with it, for better or for worse. Distressed? Afraid? Lost? Never fear. You have the solution ingrained in your genes, in your heart. Smile. You are lucky to be a Filipino. And if that is not enough, well, “ayos pala eh!”.

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*** An article presented to the University of Asia and the Pacific in March 7, 2009, in an economic briefing entitled: AYOS PALA EH (Arts Yung Only Solution Para Alisin ang Lahat ng Anxieties pag may Economic Hostilities).