Porsches and Champagne

P-Noy keeps getting flak because of his penchant for fast cars. Everyone's favorite is, of course, the Porsche. It;s pretty obvious why. The Porsche is iconic; everyone knows what it is and that it is expensive. It makes a great target.

Reconsideriing the subject, I realized that letting the president have one isn't as bad as it sounds. Don't believe me? Then get ready for a ride.

First off, P-Noy's Porsche was bought with his own money. He's rich and so is the family try as he might to hide that. Next, that Porsche was bought second hand from a local. Assuming the papers are in order some taxes and fees would have been paid to bring it over. That's money for the country. The people handling its transportation get paid as well. That's employment. Some of the maintenance would likely be done here as well. I'm sure they wouldn't ship that car overseas for an oil change and a tank of gas. I can add that local spending has a multiplier effect on the economy especially when that money gets invested locally.

Compare that to the president having dinner in the US. The money spent would have come from taxes. That tax money does not return to the country unless the restaurant sources a lot of ingredients from the Philippines. Last, I checked though, we don't produce French wine. If the restaurant staff were mostly Filipinos maybe some of them would have sent money home.

So the Porsche doesn't sound so bad. We just need to make sure the president and his allies don't eat out too much.