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Ni Ime Sornito
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Time travel would ‘enrich’ the poor
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IF TIME travel were possible, would going back to the year 1960 make today’s poor wage earners rich?
Yes, but only if it were. Just for the information of today’s millennials, take it from a senior citizen – me, 67.
Today’s minimum wage earners earn a hundred times more money than those of half a century ago. Today, if your wallet contains a thousand pesos, it could melt in a family visit to a restaurant. But if you are as old as I am, you will remember that the same amount could feed a family for six months or more in the 1950s and even in the early ‘60s!
I remember when a copper centavo (one inch in diameter) could buy a piece of wrapped candy; five centavos, two pieces of pan de sal; 10 centavos, a bottle of soft drink; and a peso, a big can of corned beef.
I was 10 years young in 1960 when our parents took us four kids to Quezon City for a two-month summer vacation. Our two-hundred-peso baon, believe it or not, took care of the house rental, food and shopping expenses. Miraculous? Not really. One peso at that time was as strong as – or even stronger than – today’s P100. In fact, the rental rate for the two-storey apartment we were occupying on 23-A Dapitan St. was only P60 per month. By sharing the same house with another family, we actually spent the same amount for two months’ rent.
At that time, the minimum wage nationwide was four pesos a day or P120 per month.
The second time I went to Manila to pursue college education in 1967, prices were still very affordable even if the minimum wage had increased to P180. While studying, I was working at the Manila International Airport post office on a daily wage of P6.
In the 1970s, even when President Ferdinand Marcos had already declared martial law, the economy was still relatively stable because price increases were infrequent and would be met with salary increases. With a wife and a baby boy, I made both ends meet on an average monthly income of P700.
I abandoned Metro Manila life in 1981 to edit a then fledgling weekly, which is now the numero uno regional daily – Panay News. At that time, the so-called PUs (small Minica taxi cabs) were still charging a flat rate of P10 for an inter-city ride. An overnight stay at Hotel del Rio cost only P120.
Times have changed. A bread winner making P15,000 a month can no longer cope with galloping prices. That amount could buy lesser goods than P120 in 1960.
The frequent increases in oil prices have triggered irreversible inflation, where individual income lags behind expenses. It is useless to count on government for rescue. The more the abusive oil cartel increases oil prices, the more the apathetic government earns from 12 percent value-added tax (VAT).
No doubt our currency has lagged behind those of other Southeast Asian nations. Remember that when the so-called Asian crisis erupted in 1997, our peso deteriorated to around P26 against one US dollar.
Stagnant income has forced Juan dela Cruz 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.
That shows why more and more professionals fly abroad, leaving behind spouses and children.
I have a friend who used to thrive in manufacturing children’s clothes for export to Guam. Her business has closed as a result of competition from China-based manufacturers.
“Those were the days my friend,” so goes an old song, “we’d thought would never end.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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