Education more valuable than land, protectionism

By now we have all heard that famous proverb extolling the virtue of self-reliance. It goes something like this: “Give a man a fish and you might feed him for a day; but teach that same man to fish and you will feed him for a whole lifetime.”

The same principle applies to the Commonwealth in regards to Article 12, our constitutional land alienation clause. Give a Chamorro man some land and he might be able to support himself for a few months to an entire lifetime, depending on the fluctuating value of the land and the man’s financial management. But give that same Chamorro man the right kind of education and he can be even more assured of maintaining his livelihood.

All things being equal (that is, held constant), education is probably more valuable than land in terms of return on investment. As we enter the New Economy, our livelihoods will become less and less rooted in land; it will increasingly become rooted in knowledge, skills, and education.

A Chamolinian father, for example, might have a son and a daughter. The daughter might inherit her father’s land while the son earns a Masters of Business Administration and a law degree.

Which sibling would probably end up better off–the son or the daughter? My wager would be on the educated son.

An unskilled and uneducated indigenous person with some Article 12-protected real property might not be so well-heeled after all. Without the right education, the person probably has no idea how to successfully manage money. She might pile on substantial debt and be forced to sell or lease her property at a bargain price–in a depressed and illiquid real estate market that limits the supply of buyers.

Real property–land–is a finite thing. Once it is squandered–either sold outright or leased for 55-years–it is gone. Once the proceeds of the sale or lease are spent, the uneducated indigenous person is at a loss. The best that he can hope for is a government job with a salary inflated way above what his skills and training would fetch in the private sector.

Unfortunately, with debt and deficits spiraling out of control due to gross financial mismanagement, our uneducated indigenous folks cannot continue to turn to big, bloated government as they have done so repeatedly in the past. Something just has to give.

Our legislators cannot blame foreign workers or the private business sector for the problems of our irresponsible indigenous people. Our government cannot force the market to break the laws of economics–to defy economic realities.

We cannot just artificially raise the minimum wage and hope that the private business sector will somehow be able to afford it. We cannot expect the private sector to turn a tidy profit by paying more than what something is really, intrinsically, worth to them and their consumers.

Our local workers will not miraculously become more qualified–more skilled and educated–just because an alien worker is forced to return home after three years of continuos CNMI employment.

We need to improve and educate ourselves, not practice economic protectionism.

Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com