Why Buy Pinoy, Part 3: Development Beyond GDP and GNP

Development can be seen, it is argued here, as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.

(Italics mine, from Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen)

One of the most common reasons that I hear for buying Pinoy products is that it supports local businesses and the local economy. Which is true, but it’s sometimes not a reason compelling enough for me. After all, “supporting local business” and “supporting local economy” sounds great, but what does that really mean? On top of that, I certainly don’t want to support local businesses that take advantage and abuse its laborers; nor do I want my (okay, I’ll say it) patriotic stand to result in just some sort of jump in the GNP or GDP numbers.

After all, GNP and GDP are not the best measure of development. Sure, it measures how much an economy has grown on a macro scale, but does it really show us if there is a positive change in the lives of people? And, to be honest, looking at the numbers on a marcro level doesn’t really show me, doesn’t show us, what kind of impact we make as individuals making choices every time we purchase something at the supermarket, or the mall, or the department store.

For me, what is more compelling is an argument that I’m just starting to understand, from the economist Amartya Sen. (Forgive me for going a bit “academic” here–I’m no economic expert though, so please bear with me!) He wants us to consider that real development is not about GNP or GDP, but about human freedom and quality of life.

It’s important for me to emphasize the word “real” in the quote above. Why?

It’s related to how, in the past, I’ve always felt so helpless as a consumer. I would stand in the aisle, faced with an infinite number of variants of shampoo–only to realize that they’re all practically made by the same two or three multinational companies. I constanly felt as if I was given only the illusion of freedom, a choice between the blue or the yellow variant of the same brand of soap, or a choice between the Classic or the Cool and Fresh variants of one toothpaste brand. In so many ways, the choices has been pre-determined for me and for every other shopper walking through the aisles of the supermarket. There was no way of checking, for example, if there were any chemicals in the shampoo that could cause allergic reactions, or which particular preservatives were used in a particular brand of canned meat, or which particular food product was made by a company which paid its workers less than minimum wage and witheld employees’ benefits.

By starting to be more conscious of what I buy–and especially of where these things are made and who makes them–I started to feel a real sense of freedom. My choices are not simply dictated by what big companies want me to buy, but rather guided by my own sensibility.

Aside from that, I also started to recognize how my act of freedom–buying something–gives other people the chance to be free as well. My act of choosing a locally-made, socially-responsible, and environmentally-responsible product, for example, gives so many people opportunities to be free: it gives the entrepreneurs freedom to develop their businesses; it gives employees the freedom to live a decent life and have a regular income in the country, without having to risk their lives working in other countries, without separating them from their families; it gives other people the freedom to enjoy an environment that is healthy and less polluted. 

It’s a small action, true, but more importantly it contributes to the freedom and quality of life of other people. And that, for me, is much more compelling than any number or percentage point in the GNP.