Exactly what shocked me on a recent visit. Obviously there are many families with extreme wealth. However people in shacks and carrying water a few steps away. Obviously lack of social support for failing families rendering future generations into poverty. Though the land and sea are rich and enable many a basic living but it seems to lack a safety net for modern expectations. Higher taxes to fund services and facilities is definitely needed from a northern European view point. Love thy neighbour?
Increasing taxes on the rich would help. But wherever you go, the rich also control most of the political power. So this is unlikely to happen. Perhaps one day, it will be considered "cool" among the rich in the Philippines to donate billions to schools and hospitals, rather than simply buying themselves ever more stuff.
Funny how the lowest on the list has the most impact on the PH's infrastructure, which will contribute to our economy and the masses. Even though Ramon Ang's PPP projects are still considered private and most of the income will go to his pocket, at least he's giving it back to the people by investing in infra. Which is very reversed to the one and only politician/business family and no less on the top of the list, the Villars. How shrewd that is!
I think like in any country, the road to riches is to own your own business. This applies to pretty much any country in the world. The scale of that business is what matters in the end. When it comes to the distribution of wealth, IMO the biggest issue is the wages in the philippines. If you look at a retail formula, rent is your biggest expense with staffing being the second but in the philippines, with wages being so low, it makes a much smaller dent in expenses. This means when you sell a pair of pants in the west, the wages eat a big part of the proffits and end up back to the citizens, where if you sell the same pair of paints in PH for the SAME PRICE a lot of the times, since the wage portion is so small, the profits are larger and that ends up in the pocket of the owner. I know this is a very simplified look at it and the issues go a whole lot deeper than this but with wages being so low, it helps to perpetuate that time does not equal money attitude seen in PH and all the issues that come with that as well. Better education and better work etihic with proper scaleable wages, eventually end up with more money in the hands of the population.
The United States' strong union movement, in the 20th century, was responsible for the growth of a large middle class. If labor was permitted to organize, the Philippines would see a similar development, imho.
@@timgeist1574 The corporate globalist has finally managed to slowly but surely destroy the unions in America by importing foreign labor into the country and their exporting and offshoring jobs and businesses into foreign countries, so, so much for a strong middle class that no longer exist in America.
Philippines was a US colony during the first half of the 20th century. They were not able to implement that in the Philippines when they were in charge. Unlike in Japan , Korea and Taiwan
As a longtime visitor to the Philippines it's not shocking that disparity between the very wealthy 9 people is greater than that of 55% of the entire population of the Philippines. What is needed is a fair method of that wealth opportunity and distribution. The fact that the nine wealthiest people are so far out front does not mean that they should be in any way be vilified because they earned such great wealth. In a democracy that's how it should work but of course it's far from achieving that lofty ideal. The playing field is not even but neither is life so Government should close all loopholes, in Tax collection. More equitable tax application should also be applied. Even in our US society we struggle with this issue. Lastly corruption at every turn must be stamped out.
Income Tax Increased on the 1% would help but the only real way to increase the middle class is by providing more Jobs especially tech type jobs but also manufacturing type jobs and until the gov't starts collecting higher property taxes the infrastructure will be lacking also imo
The thing about those Filipinos: although so many of them seem to be wallowing in poverty- they sure are smiling more than any people I've ever seen....
You have a understand that there is so much corruption in the Philippines, especially with business protection , for example in most provinces outside of Manila not many competing businesses like fast food, also ex military generals and politicans own the best land and sites
It's no accident that wealth is concentrated in a few. It is a deliberate choice by the government patterned on the South Korean chaebols (Samsung, LG, Kia, Hyundai, etc.) to rapidly industrialize by creating monopolies with sufficient size and influence to be globally competitive to support a rapidly expanding young workforce. I only hope we do not suffer the same fate, a collapsing demographic with insufficient wealth to ensure long term stability that SK seems doomed to. Hopefully we can achieve a state at least as sustainable, or better, than Japan's, i.e., get rich before we get old.
How is this different to the situation in any other country? The rich are rich. My wife and I are not rich; we are comfortable. We own about USD$ 1M in property. We have property, a business and an income of around USD40,000 p.a. We are content. The kids are doing fine.
Trivia: Most of those billionaires particularly Fiilpino-Chinese were immigrants or descendants of immigrant parents from China who came to the PH and these Chinese immigrants were very, very poor but since they are naturally good at business and handling money so they succeeded with the support of the Filipinos. Without the Filipinos or our money supporting them or their business, they will not thrive or become successful. In other words, it is the Filipinos who made these Chinoys rich, not the other way around.
Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt --- rich people in USA now money are GONE -- high TECH like AI will change everything ---- Nvidia founder "Jensen Huang" started from nothing now $3 - trillion worth.
definitely an oversupply of potential workers in the Philippines coupled with little or no protections for workers. i.e. if a worker at Jollibee mistakenly pours a coke instead of a coke zero for a customer, the cost of the drink will be deducted from their measley wages. and even worse if a customer does not want their change from a purchase and worker puts it in the cash drawer, the overage amount will be deducted from their pay. and as to overtime, many are forced to work extra hours and days with no additional pay. And at SM, the workers who help carry your purchase to your car cannot accept tips, (give paper money so they can hide in their briefs)
YHWH our God places extra responsibilities upon those who He allows to be wealthy - whether they understand this or not - & God shall hold them accountable for their attitudes & actions, or inactions towards others. Many suffering now may find themselves being eternally rewarded for their faith in God's Word while many rich folk currently ignoring God's desire may find themselves being punished with eternal torment. In the long run it's best to be righteous in the sight of God than to keep acting self-righteous, ravenous, & bent on gaining &/or maintaining worldly wealth. ✝️😎👍
Those richest families, especially the Chinese sounding ones; are the main beneficiaries of the contractualization of labor, union-busting, and underpayment of labor wages, nonpayment of overtime, etc. Getting rich off the fat of the land.
I guess Marcos family is number one. 😅 Followed by other politicians. Like Duterte, Macapagal, Enrile, Binay, Chavit, Aquino, Cojuangco, Roxas, etc... then followed by businessman, In the Philippines the only way to get rich is by joining politics, and become celebrity then followed by business. 😅
Nobody can help the Pilipinos (any colour) except the Pilipinos other's only for the show not real like bubble gum only air when it pops away as (fart)
Need to focus on corrupt politicians. They are pocketing taxpayers’ money instead of using it to help the poor. Also, the POGOS need to go. Other countries have kicked them out because they are bad for the country. Examples are Bamban and Porac POGOS. They were raided and illegal activities were discovered such as scamming, human trafficking, torturing… (my contribution to a needed change😊)
