The Philippines: A Struggling Economy

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The Philippines has long been a country with a struggling economy. Ever since World War II, they have struggled to have a steady government and labor system. Independence did not bring any social changes to the country. The hacienda system still persists in the country, where large estates are farmed by sharecroppers. More the half the population are peasants and 20 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the land. Although the sharecropper is supposed to receive half of the harvest, most of the peasant's actual income goes to paying off debts to the landowner. Poverty and conflict strained the industrial growth of the country with many Presidents trying to fix the problems, but failing to do so. Factors that have faced the country are there is almost 9 percent unemployment, and the country suffers from the consequences of a balance of trade deficit. With the resources that the Philippines have, they are capable of pulling themselves out of the economical hole they are in and being up to par with their successful neighboring countries.

The Philippines were first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. It then became a colony of Spain from the late 1500's until the end of the19th century when the United States came intervened. The colonial rule of the Spanish ended in December 1898 after the United States intervened due to a popular rebellion that had broken out two years earlier. Under the United States colonial rule, democratic institutions were introduced, and the Filipinos took over all the political and bureaucratic positions. In 1934 the Philippines became an internally self governing commonwealth, with full independence from the United States scheduled for July 4, 1946. The independent republic mainta...

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...active to investors to build more hotels, and island destinations. There is potential for this country to move forward and no longer be a third world country, it just needs to tap into its resources to make a difference.

Bibliography

Salehzedah, Zohre and Henneberry, Shida Restagari "The Economic Impacts of Trade Liberalization and Factor the Case of the Philippines." Journal of Policy Modeling v24.

Lim, Joseph Y. and Montes, Manuel F. "The Structure of Employment and Structural Adjustment in the Philippines." Journal of Development Studies v.36

The Philippines Columbia Encyclopedia 6 Dec. 2004 http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/philiprep_history.asp

Philippines: Country Profile 2004 1 Dec. 2004 The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2004 15 Dec. 2004 www.eiu.com

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