Bienvenido “Nonoy” Oplas Jr.

Minimal Government Thinkers, Inc.

Career in Free Market Think Tanks

UP Economics Towards Consciousness (ETC)

Career Workshop, Vinzon’s Hall,

UP Diliman, Quezon City

06 May 2015

Background 1: What are free market think tanks?

* Free market – advocates free trade, voluntary exchange, zero to little

government intervention in many sectors of the economy. More individual

freedom, personal and civil society responsibility.

* 3 types of free marketers:

(1) Anarchist – zero state authority, zero central (and local?) government,

citizens’ self-government by voluntary organizations and individuals.

(2) Minarchist – small or minimal government, function is mainly to

enforce the rule of law, protect the citizens against aggression, their right

to private property, right to liberty.

(3) ―Minimax‖ – one side advocates minarchy, another side advocates

more government, more or higher taxes.

* Think tanks – public research institutes, produce studies and papers,

organize public lectures in support of free market advocacies.

* Independent -- receive or solicit no government funding or donation

(local, national, multilateral/foreign aid money). Private donations from

individuals, corporate and political foundations, other NGOs and CSOs.

Background 2: Examples of free market think tanks?

1. USA – Cato Institute, Atlas Econ. Research Foundation, Americans for

Tax Reforms (ATR), Heritage Foundation, Foundation for Econ. Educ.

(FEE), Reason Foundation, Int’l. Policy Network (IPN),,…

2. UK – Adam Smith Institute, Inst. for Economic Affairs (IEA),…

3. Japan – Japanese for Tax Reforms (JTR), Inst. for Free Economy (IFE)

4. S. Korea – Freedom Factory Ltd, Korea Econ. Research Inst. (KERI).

5. China – Unirule Inst. of Economics, Cathay Inst. for Pub Affairs (CIPA)

6. Hong Kong – Lion Rock Institute (LRI)

7. India – Liberty Institute, Center for Civil Society (CCS),…

8. Malaysia – Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS),

South East Asia Network for Development (SEANET)

9. Indonesia – Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), Freedom Inst,

10. Thailand – Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia, Inst. for Future

Studies and Development

11. Vietnam – doimoi.org, …

12. PH – Minimal Government Thinkers, FounDation for Econ. Freedom

(FEF), Center for Research and Communication (CRC)

1. Career and occupation? * President, Minimal Government Thinkers,

Inc., Manila, 2008-present

(previously Minimal Government Movement

(MGM), 2004-2007. Former is a think tank,

latter was a small political movement for

limited government)

* Fellow, South East Asia Network for

Development (SEANET), 2015-2016

http://seanetwork.asia/,

https://seanet2.wordpress.com/.

* Side activities as contributor:

(a) ―Fat-Free Economics‖,

http://interaksyon.com/

(b) ASEAN Voices, Jakarta-based monthly

magazine, 2015—

(c) Business 360, Kathmandu-based

monthly mag., http://biz360.com.np/

• Author, Health Choices and

Responsibilities, 2011, published by

Central Book Supply, QC,

http://www.slideshare.net/Noysky/health-

choices-and-responsibilities

• Author, Liberalism, Rule of Law and

Civil Society, 2014, published by

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for

Freedom (FNF) PH Office,

http://fnf.org.ph/epub/

• Currently writing a 3rd book on Free Trade

in the ASEAN, a SEANET project.

2. What led you to this career? • Follower and believer of Marxism-socialism in the 80s in UP, did not believe

in free market, but neither with Mao and Joma Sison; went to Amsterdam in

1987 to further study Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and E. Mandel for 3+ months.

• Worked at the House of Representatives in the 90s, slowly abandoned

socialism and embraced ―big but good democratic government‖.

• Rediscovered the beauty of the price system when attended Prog.in Devt.

Economics (PDE), 1997-98, slowly abandoned ―big but good government‖

• Frequent debates vs leftists at pilipinasforum@yahoogroups.com in early

2000s, cemented belief in free market; 180-deg turn after a decade.

• Co-founded MGM in 2004, was introduced to the international free market

movement when given an international fellowship in the US by the Atlas

Economic Research Foundation that year.

• Attending regional and international free market conferences and seminars

2004-presentt, ave. of 3 foreign conf./meetings yearly, all sponsored.

3. How did you search this career? • Maybe it’s the reverse: the career discovered me

Consistent belief in individual freedom, personal and civil society

responsibility, free market competition and spontaneous non-state

regulation.

• There are other free market-leaning institutes and groups in the PH, but

either they are (a) informal, unregistered with SEC, or (b) formal but less

consistent with free market, limited government advocacy.

• MGT remains a small, under-funded think tank. Consistent advocacy for

less or minimal government intervention in various sectors, posted online,

makes it relatively visible.

4. Challenges in current path, how to overcome them? • Mainly funding, limited entrepreneurial capacity to mobilize more private

donations.

• Approaching some local NGOs, industry groups, sympathetic individual

for support, in cash and in kind.

,

• Zero overhead cost, no office rentals, electricity, water, internet,

telephone, etc. Courtesy of sibling assistance, MGT holding office at her

big medium size company.

• Moving towards regional perspectives in analyzing national issues and

advocacies: Trade and investments, energy and agriculture, territory and

security, taxation and borrowings, and so on.

• Organize public events, conduct classroom lectures, book writing on

other issues in the coming months.

5. Lessons learned as ETCer (and UPSE) alumni? • Extra-curricular activities, good human relations, professional

networking, are as important as academic performance.

• Article, ―Why do many intellectuals oppose capitalism?‖ by Robert

Nozick.

• About 20 years from now, only about 15% of Econ graduates will be

doing directly Econ research and teaching (academe, NEDA, PIDS, WB,

ADB, private bank economists,…). Most will go to private business,

become lawyers, IT and other professions.

• Econ concepts and tools are applied unconsciously..

• Ex. MR = MC. Profit is optimized when the Marginal Revenue is equal to

the Marginal Cost.

• Employers who have 10 employees – why not 8 or 9 or 11? Because

with only 9 or less employees, MR > MC while with 11 or more

employees, MR < MC

,

6. Benefits or difficulties to expect if we enter the

institution you’re in?

• Compensation, career development -- if you are entrepreneurial, good

pay and travels. Unlike most academic papers that are purported to

produce ―objective‖ studies, free market think tanks have clear

advocacies and are often contradictory to policies of governments (local

and national) and the foreign aid/multilateral institutions. Governments

want endless expansion like amoeba, they can produce endless

justifications and alibi for such endless expansion.

• Difficulties – some funding as it is not advisable to accept or solicit

government money. Keep institute independence at all times.