IF INFLATION were nothing more than air in a tire to ride on, then prices of goods today would have been as good as yesteryears’ when one could survive on a hundred pesos in – believe it or not – one whole month.
I remember those grade-school days when my late father would often remind me to set aside coins (at that time mostly made of silver) for my piggy bank, joking that if I could fill it with a million pesos, I would have enough to spend till death. In those days in the 1950s, a million pesos seemed inexhaustible. Although my father, a school teacher, was earning only P120 a month, it was big enough to keep us alive and comfortable.
For sure, senior citizens like me have already made millions of pesos in decades of working hard for the money. But as to where it is today, I don’t know.
Anyway, pretending that I still have a million pesos stashed away in the bank, it would no longer go a long way. In fact, a family with that much today could eat and play under one roof for only one year.
Sa totoo lang, we Filipinos have much more money now than we had half a century ago, but it could buy much less number goods; a thousand pesos could melt in a single visit to a mall. But – hey, believe it or not, young ones – the same amount could feed a family for six months or more in the 1950s and even in the early ’60s!
I should remember. I was a lad of 10 in 1960 when our parents took us four kids to Quezon City for a two-month summer vacation. Looking back, it seemed like a miracle that our two-hundred-peso baon took care of the house rental, food and shopping expenses for two months. It was not impossible because one peso at that time was stronger than today’s one hundred pesos. In fact, the rental rate for the two-storey apartment we occupied on 23-A Dapitan St. was only P60 per month. By sharing the same house with another family, we actually spent that amount for two months.
The second time I went to Manila to pursue college education in 1967, prices were still very affordable. The minimum wage had increased to P180. How could I forget? I was a college student at night, a 17-year-old “job hire” in a post office during the day.
In the mid-1970s, even when President Ferdinand Marcos had already declared martial law, the economy was still stable because price increases were infrequent and would be met with salary increases. As a press release writer of a music recording company and freelance writer in Metro Manila, I supported my family on average monthly income of a thousand pesos, of which P80 went to apartment rental.
Times have changed. While much more money has gone into circulation, the average employees’ monthly income – now more or less than P15,000 – can no longer cope with galloping prices. In short, the Philippine peso has atrophied.
It is useless to count on government for rescue. The government has done more harm done good by implementing “tax reforms” – euphemism for higher taxes that warp the buying power of the peso.
The stagnant income of Juan dela Cruz has forced him to decrease consumption. He would buy a half-kilo of meat instead of a kilo. He would cancel family vacation trips. He would stop going to the movies and make do with regular TV instead.
Even the supposedly affluent Filipinos can’t seem to catch up with inflation. This explains why more and more professionals fly abroad, leaving behind lonely spouses and children. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
