The discussion is getting funny at the same time serious in here.
It is kind of romantic when someone from a much well-off country (which I suppose you are from) speaks of canned sardines and carinderias in a positive way. The sad thing, however, is that ₱60 may be cheap to you but not to many of the ordinary citizens here. If one ordinary worker spends ₱60 per meal here, he'll be spending ₱180/day for meals alone. That could mean one is eating up more than half of his daily wage. That cannot be. There won't be anything left for the family if that's the case.
The worse thing here is that the government does not make anything better. I suppose the government where you are coming from is looking after the welfare of its people. The government here can only offer lip service.
They don't get it unless you tell them what the average wage is. I will tell you the avg wage in mine, so you can jump of joy of the richness you are living in: 5 USD a month. Only a decade ago, i used to earn 250 USD a month. Same job, in the same company, is paying right now about 5 USD. I had to quit when it was around 10 USD, was paying more in public transport.
I found that committing myself to an internet job was the only choice, and here i am. We are survivors, except the select Elite close to the guys in power.
In 2010 i didn't think i would ever suffer such poverty, i should have committed all my savings from that job into bitcoin. Too late... If we had seasons, most of us would die in winter. I have an acquaintance with the theory that is the very reason poverty reigns in the tropics, we are just too lazy. When your country goes down the poverty drain, all the others close the doors. Americans and Europeans don't understand this, they just can't imagine how people are forced to ask for a visa and pay a fortune for the permission to visit a country a week or two. And how do you meet people that might employ you overseas when you are not even allowed to enter in the first place? and how are you going to ever afford the ticket when you are also forbidden to work the time you stay there?
When 9a-5p 5-6 days a week job nets you 5 USD a month, how exactly do you think someone can afford things like cars or such?
And i think i'm better than the average, at least i inherited a place to live (parents still living there too). Internet stopped working 2 years ago, i still miss the days when i could leisure watch youtube videos, i'm forced to use a capped mobile that cannot be expanded, people are forced to use 600mb a month and then pay A LOT more per byte. But to me no internet = no food (literally).
In this distorted economy where competition is rare and State power overreaching, the few that import goods charge at least twice of what you would pay in your rich countries. So not only do we earn a misery, to buy your products we would need to pay 2 or 3 times more. Oh you people don't really know how a gov can ruin a country, no no no, in your lifetimes you never will, probably.
"Because of politics i wish to leave a 3rd world country" Or actually i wish the politicians would leave the country.
Incidentally you could live here A MONTH with 10 USD, hey that's TWICE the average wage... I think Filipinos should send us aid, you guys are so rich
We DO have something else in common: we also used to be a Spanish colony. Maybe that left something bad in our culture, since the former British colonies next door seem to be faring MUCH better... Or the Westminster system is truly superior to our "President" is the absolute ruler nonsense. Who knows?
