Weird financial mysteries in the Philippines I can't figure out!

[Winston]

I've never been able to figure out these financial mysteries in the Philippines, and for some reason, Filipinos don't like to answer them but are dodgy about them.

1. If the average salary in the Philippines is 300p per day, as I'm told, then how do people eat and survive? That is not enough to feed oneself and pay for transportation and other expenses, let alone raise a family. So how do people make ends meet? The math doesn't add up. And how do they afford 20,000p hospital pills when they give birth and have expensive operations?

Furthermore, how do any stores, malls or restaurants survive in the Philippines? If the average salary is 300p a day and only 40 percent of people are employed with no extra cash, then how can so many consumers afford to patronize restaurants or keep any stores or malls in business? The math doesn't add up.

With a salary that is not even enough for food, and every Filipino claiming to be broke, where does all the money come from to pay for all the expenses in life and keep all the businesses running?

2. How come nearly 100 percent of Filipinas I meet claim to be 100 percent broke, and cannot even afford to buy a burger at McDonald's. This is true even if they have a job. They claim to have no extra money at all, and can't pay for anything, and need me to pay for 100 percent of everything when we go out.

So WHO then, are all the scores of Filipinas I see in supermarket checkout lines with wads of cash in their wallet/purse to pay for their groceries? Who are all those Filipinas I see paying for food at Jollibee, and at the checkout lines of SM Dept Store buying 500p blouses and 1000p jeans? How do they get money for food, transportation, clothes and cell phone loads? How do they get money for the nice cell phones that they have? And how do their families afford 20,000p hospital bills for every surgical operation and childbirth delivery that they need?

Is there some mass conspiracy in the Philippines against foreigners whereby every Filipina claims to be broke around a foreigner and needs him to pay for everything? Or am I missing something here?

Also, what if I went out with one of those Filipinas that I see buying groceries at the supermarket and at SM? Would they claim to be broke around me and that they can't pay for anything?

I can't figure this out, and Filipinos don't seem to like answering these questions, or they don't really have an answer that makes sense.

[Winston]

Here is a reply I received on Pinoy Exchange.

http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/sho ... p=56861628

@TS
Why do you have to concern yourself of on how someone lives by only having the minimum wage? If you really think this is impossible then I shall give you my monthly expenses.

Php300 a day x 30 days = 9000(minimum wage per month). Figures below are rounded up to the nearest hundreds.

2500-bills [electric(2k), utilities(.5k), phone bill paid by parents]
1400-transportation [I spend Php40 a day to work, the excess- whenever i go out on weekends]
1300-toiletries[i'm a girl so i spend this much]
800-medicine
1300-food[for myself only, daily meals and groceries paid by parents]
1000-clothing, accessories
500-miscellaneous
----
8800--So every month I spend less than the min wage. It is possible to live by minimum wage. My earnings are higher than minimum wage so I save A LOT (more than 50% of my earnings). My parents are minimum wage earners though...

Not sure if it adds up though. Doesn't she have to pay any taxes? And doesn't she have any days off?

[Baron]

Look at what normal Filipinos eat on their dinner table and see how much it will cost?

They just don't have the variety and the quality of the food they eat. (Plus no quantity too..)
One taxi driver told me that their family of 5 can eat well with 5k for food per month.. Which it is totally impossible for my family.

Just simply don't spend, always use and eat cheap stuffs.

Transportation - they don't go out everyday..

[Baron]

Oh.. and a normal Filipino doesn't use that much Electric. and don't live in a house where you have to pay utilities. Plus, No cable tv.

They just share house or share the same room with multiple people to split the cost.

Thus, electric bill = max 1000 or even much less than that. No Own Fridge. No Own TV. NO Aircon. Only TV for 2 hours per day or so.. When it is super hot, they share a fan. it is that simple. No fancy cable channel.. THus, u only watch channel 6 or 12.

[ladislav]

I think the department stores survive because of the sheer number of people splurging. Say, a Filipina got her salary of php 4000 for two weeks. She will go and spend some php 500 on that day. And so will another 100,000 people in that area. Also, not all people are employees. There are lots and lots of business and store owners. Huge numbers. These also splurge or go there once a week or so. On the days that they do not go because of no more budget, there will be others because the numbers of people in RP are huge.

Also Filipino families seem to have an unseen money pool that the person who has the most money contributes to the most. So, in a family that has 7-8 people living together, an uncle working in Saudi and a sister working in the US, there is always some kind of revolving reservoir of money that many people can dip into.

[FreeYourMind]

I was amazed by how many employees the stores at the malls hire, on average at least five times as many as U.S. stores. Every section of a store we would go to, we would be swarmed by a group of young employees who otherwise spend their time just standing around. And the amount of security guards, in Manila at least, is mind-boggling. They are everywhere, patting everyone down who enters the mall, working in many stores, including fast food places, and working for apartment buildings and in many other settings. It seemed like a substantial number of Filipino men work as security guards.

[Raja]

I was amazed by how many employees the stores at the malls hire, on average at least five times as many as U.S. stores. Every section of a store we would go to, we would be swarmed by a group of young employees who otherwise spend their time just standing around. And the amount of security guards, in Manila at least, is mind-boggling. They are everywhere, patting everyone down who enters the mall, working in many stores, including fast food places, and working for apartment buildings and in many other settings. It seemed like a substantial number of Filipino men work as security guards.

What was the quote about the Soviet Union, we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. The army of girls at the SM Mall with one stationed at each floor rack of T-shirts and three at the cashier is just the society's accepted way of providing public assistance. As for the guards well there is that MILF and NPA threat.

[FreeYourMind]

I was amazed by how many employees the stores at the malls hire, on average at least five times as many as U.S. stores. Every section of a store we would go to, we would be swarmed by a group of young employees who otherwise spend their time just standing around. And the amount of security guards, in Manila at least, is mind-boggling. They are everywhere, patting everyone down who enters the mall, working in many stores, including fast food places, and working for apartment buildings and in many other settings. It seemed like a substantial number of Filipino men work as security guards.

What was the quote about the Soviet Union, we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. The army of girls at the SM Mall with one stationed at each floor rack of T-shirts and three at the cashier is just the society's accepted way of providing public assistance. As for the guards well there is that MILF and NPA threat.

There's probably a lot of truth in that. It's also true about the high quality looks of the girls. The average store worker bee in the Philippines is far classier and better looking than her U.S. counterpart. And the employees all dressed well and seemed to be well-trained and know what they were talking about, even though there was so many more of them than what was needed.

[philosophical_filipino]

When overseas Filipino workers send money back home to the Philippines. Their families go on an insane shopping spree and spend all the money buying useless products from the mall. They don't use the money to save, start small businesses, or stimulate the economy in any meaningful way. The average Filipino, even though living in dire poverty, wants to instantly gratify themselves by buying the latest trendy products. Filipinos have inherited the worst traits from their foreign masters aka the Spanish and Americans. Since the premise they worship foreigners, they want to emulate everything the of the foreign lifestyle. Filipinos want to be Americans so bad they are willing to eat, dress, and gangster rap talk like them. The U.S. corporations welcome this because there's a huge market of ignorant masses who want to be them and are willing to buy their products with the little money they have.

Filipinas want you to buy them things because they're broke gold digging sluts. They are completely status-driven. They see a foreign Chinaman or American, and they assume he has money. The Western mentality is infecting the average Filipina mind to think she can be taken care of by this foreigner. The ones with money at the grocery stores are the ones who have husbands working in foreign countries and they are buying food to feed their families. Filipinos are selfish in this regard and will do anything for their own family unit. Decency and good-will be damned as long as they can benefit themselves and their immediate families.

The whole Philippine economy is on life support and overseas workers are the only form of income the island nation is generating. Without these OFWs, Philippines economy would crash immediately. http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2 ... ce_economy

[Sexter]

i'm filipino. Born in the philippines, came to america at 4 years old. Got my degree in finance

The reason why the Filipino economy is in shambles is because the government is corrupt. They don't allocate the tax dollars to fund projects or help poor people. Thus, there's a surplus of POOR people in the philippines.

The women expect you to pay because the economy in the philippines suck. EVEN IF a filipino woman has a good job (engineer/teacher/banker), it's only equivalent to that of 8$ an hour at a minimum wage job.

Every thing else in the philippines isn't as expensive in america. Food is a lot cheaper. The only expensive things in the philippines is buying a house and buying a car. Most people use public transportation. If you see a filipino driving a car, they either got it from a loan shark or have people supporting them out of sea.

Corruption is a DAILY thing in the filipino government. You can pretty much bribe your way out of anything. I've known murderers in prison bribe their way out. Corruption is a daily way of life there, this is why so many people want to travel to other countries. I remember growing up in los angeles, i gave all of my old shoes/clothes to my cousins in the philippines because buying clothes such as nike shoes is a luxury in the philippines.

[Winston]

Thanks, but can you solve this mystery that I explained above?

99 percent of Filipinos claim to have no money. They can't even eat at McDonald's unless you want to treat them. So where the hell does McDonald's get its business and how does it stay in business? Same for SM malls, stores, restaurants, etc. 99 percent of Filipino people claim to not be able to afford to go to restaurants or buy anything at stores. So how do they all stay in business? This is the biggest mystery of all there.

It just doesn't make any frickin sense. Filipinos get uncomfortable when I ask them about this.

What am I missing here? I must be missing something huge. Or else there is a huge conspiracy/lie against foreigners.

[philosophical_filipino]

The truth is, Mr. Winston, Filipinos are too greedy and self-absorbed to unite because they are passive like the American populace. I stress again they worship foreigners and when you read about Philippines history books it exalts the Americans and Spanish as Lord and Savior. Filipinos are mindless robots whose sole motivation is status-driven competition. That means even f***ing over their entire nation and fellow countrymen. Greed is a powerful influence.

They spend, spend, spend on products they don't need. It's all about status and power. Filipinos are hugely suspectible to this sinister dark force.

Philippines is a sinking ship like the Titantic, and the Filipinos are the ones pushing women and children out of the way to save themselves. We're a selfish people with no hindsight.

[Rock]

Thanks, but can you solve this mystery that I explained above?

99 percent of Filipinos claim to have no money. They can't even eat at McDonald's unless you want to treat them. So where the hell does McDonald's get its business and how does it stay in business? Same for SM malls, stores, restaurants, etc. 99 percent of Filipino people claim to not be able to afford to go to restaurants or buy anything at stores. So how do they all stay in business? This is the biggest mystery of all there.

It just doesn't make any frickin sense. Filipinos get uncomfortable when I ask them about this.

What am I missing here? I must be missing something huge. Or else there is a huge conspiracy/lie against foreigners.

1. The ones you've been around may poorer and more desperate than the average shopper you see in the malls. Your 99% figure is probably way off. Also consider, the ones you are around may not be as poor as they claim to be. Perhaps they are just lying to you abut not having money to buy a burger to get you to spend more on them Mr. Santa Clause, Ho Ho Ho.

2. As philosophical said, when the remittances from OCWs arrive, a shopping spree follows. Over US$20 bn is remitted in annually - or roughly 4,500 Pesos per month for ever family in the country (assuming 6 per family), enough to support a lot of shopping. And this is not equally divided. Some people don't have relatives overseas. So the ones who do get even more, making them feel very cashed-up and itching to spend.

[Repatriate]

I see the other side of it with the few Filipino acquaintances I know in Thailand working their asses off in various jobs (usually teaching) to make ends meet in Thailand and at home. I asked one Filipino how much he makes in Thailand he says 25,000 baht (roughly U.S. $833 a month) and he sends home ($500 a month) to his worthless relatives. I only know they are worthless because he says his father is healthy and doesn't do shit and his siblings sponge off him. Apparently one brother dropped out of college after going to school with tuition money he footed the bill for and his sister goes to an expensive mid-tier uni and doesn't care one bit about where the money comes from.

Apparently the most productive members of the Filipino family network feel obligated to support these selfish habits when the freeloaders should be cut off.

This sort of thing would never fly in Chinese culture.


Another thing I should mention is that the Filipinos I know also have really terrible spending habits. They won't think twice about putting money down for a car loan or a bunch of other unnecessary items. The Filipino I know bought a used car which he spends at least 1000 baht a week on for fuel, additional insurance, and other maintenance costs. He uses the car to drive less than 5km to work and back home again while sitting in traffic for 1-2 hours a day burning gas.

[philosophical_filipino]

@Repatriate, you're right bro. Why should lazy freeloaders get a free pass? They do nothing with their lives and expect a handout AKA WELFARE from overseas hard-working Filipinos who are busting their ass in a foreign place. Filipinos are vain, lazy, and shallow. Look @ the Chinese, they are frugal, hard-working, and very intelligent with their money. China is motherf***ing richer than America.

The Chinese mind-set is like chess, they are 5-6 steps ahead of everyone else on the global stage. Their decisions concering their economy are efficient in the sense they don't have to wait for bullshit democratic bureaucracy to hinder their expansionism.

I don't hate being Filipino, but sometimes I get highly disappointed and discouraged if there will be any improvement at all. *sighs*