Be prepared for the worst, in the long haul. We are going through difficult times. After the pandemic, we now have to live with really high prices due to the war in Ukraine.
Take the case of taxi drivers. They go sleepless and work for 24 hours. One of them would have a collection of P3,500.00. Then come the daily deductions. P1,500 for the daily “boundary” or what goes to the operator or owner of the cab. What is left would be P2,000. But then he has to go to the gas station to fill up the tank to the brim to replace what he used. That would cost him around P1,600.00. What is left would be around P400.00, his earnings. For 24 hours! And he would have to rest the next 24 hours. So that P400.00 must be able to feed his family for two days.
It is really bad but the cab drivers still soldier on. Once in a while their earnings could go up to P800.00 to P1000.00 which they have to stretch for two days. But you have to be in extreme survival mode. For what could you buy for P500.00? Just rice and some “tuyo.” What about your family’s other needs?
But this dire situation just might solve what was never solved by government since time immemorial, congestion in urban areas. As one cab driver in Baguio related, he sent back his family– a wife and a kid— to Mountain Province so they could survive decently. They don’t have to rent there while he, the head of the family, who was left in the city would live with his sister rent-free. His family in the province would not enjoy city amenities but they would not go hungry.
Perhaps the government then should turn its attention to the rural areas which was what it should have been doing in the first place. Pour government development money in those places to create opportunities. That is the only sustainable solution to congestion in the cities which always results in so many other socio-economic problems.
Still, people must find other sources of income. Such could only happen if citizens are generally empowered to take care of themselves. Not much though regarding this were considered priorities in past programs of government.
So most people are adopting extreme measures like surviving on minimal amounts or resources. The end result will be, at best, human resources who could only survive but whose quality would not be competitive in the international scene.**