Editorial

When is income enough?

Critics have dared or challenged the Philippine Statistics Authority to prove the worth of a monthly income of P10,000 as “enough” for a family of five members. This is much short of other assessments such as IBON foundation’s P23,660 for the same family size. Even the labor sector has long been ranting on the current daily minimum wage by region, which is P311 in Region XII for instance. Are people behind the PSA earning that P10,000 ceiling? How did they come out with the “enough” figure that perhaps it is just measly for a solo bachelor?

        Consider this account… One nuclear household pays a monthly rent of P2,100 and an average monthly electric bill of P1,100. So how can the balance of P6,800 be enough for a family of five when food is not the only basic necessity for the budgeting? The figure is rather “poorly” stated by the PSA, so to speak by critics. 

        Extracting from a paragraph on a fiction novel, it partly states: “It’s always financial… finance affects everything else… Living is expensive… Money is just enough for living fairly… But the whole idea is to save. Read between the lines and one can say a family needs more than P10,000 a month that even the poor bet on the game of chance, such as lotto, to amass high figures if by any means. Some hospitals are under-staffed because medical professionals, such as licensed nurses, prefer overseas employment enchanted by higher pay rates, say at 80,000 in peso currency.

        So at P10,000 a month, a family of five has to contend with some P300 a day… is this “enough?” This is critically debatable when consumption behavior is really relative. To some it could be enough for contentment but to others it’s a “no deal.”

        Anyhow, life is really economics and average income earners have to struggle to make both ends meet but barely enough if the pay is short of expectation. Not all employment positions are lucrative in pay rates and an earner has to be innovative enough to cope with economic uphills.

        In another assessment, the P1-M of a retiree is good for three years, if the sum is uninvested. One could survive with P20,000 to P25,000 a month so long he/she has no arrears and is very healthy.

        Never mind what the PSA says about monthly income. When is a sum really “enough” for a certain family of five? To go more than the amount is indeed a challenge in coping with economics. As one economic specialist fathomed: Investment starts when one enters into collegiate education for a profession… if at all. But others are lucky or industrious enough to earn more than enough.

        Getting high income is a dare!