At a time when stomachs grumble, their echoes sweeping across all levels of our society, we cannot help but remember a previously reported P10,000-budget for a typical family of five: Parents and three children.
In simple arithmetic, that amounts to P333.33 per day, or P66.66 per member per day—absolutely a ridiculously contemptible proposition, even assuming that those who suggest such hypothesis is applicable to the modest aspirations of a few, which should not be taken as the prototype for the majority.
Such submissions, which could be explained and corrected eventually as officials did in fact, are, at the very least unrealistic and sterile as Blanquism—the revolutionary doctrine raised by the French socialist Louis-Auguste Blanqui—against which the 19th century Marxists inveighed so heavily for its shameless impracticability.
We note that the National Economic and Development Authority, challenged by many—not only those who live in makeshift dwellings but in some upper echelon economic blocks—has corrected reports that the P10,000 budget for a typical Filipino family was only “hypothetical” and then added it has no “convention” or protocol over what is an appropriate figure for a “decent life.”
A revelation by the government body that 79 percent of respondents aspired for a simple life, 16.9 percent wanted an affluent life, and only 3.9 percent wanted a rich life—the 0.2 percent likely undecided—has shown enough rungs that invite an honest-to-goodness dissection.
Particularly since respondents have described a “simple life” as consisting of a medium-sized home, enough earnings to support everyday needs, at least one car, financial capacity to support children's college education, and money for local trips.
To afford these things, we give it to NEDA which argued that a family must have a monthly income of P120,000 to be able to address these things.
With prices of prime commodities rising faster than a thunderclap, not to mention the inflation that rolls on with the capacity of the family to keep up for a decent standard of living, it is incumbent upon employers, legislators and the government to focus on what would make a Filipino live decently.
