Over the years, decades or so, people have always been saying that poverty is something that is common in third world countries. In can be measured based on some mathematical description or the so-called economy of the country. Through the calculated economic output of a country, the government can define and assess whether or not there is improvement in the lives of the people based on quantity or financial aspect. Poverty can be defined nowadays as what you can see in the present situation in society. Unfortunately, the Philippines is experiencing poverty due to many factors that affect the budget of the common people in the country. These factors that affect not only the government in finding ways in order to solve it or perhaps decrease poverty but also the people, mostly the mass, who are the ones being severely affected by slight change in the prices of goods and commodities or the needs being catered in the market.
There are so many problems that our country is facing now. One of it is the continuous oil-price hike which affects most of the public transportation companies in budgeting for their daily earnings which results to a higher cost in public transportation vehicles such as taxis, jeepneys, tricycles as well as the railroad systems (LRT & MRT). Oil price from different oil importing companies have been rapidly increasing as days pass by. Oil companies always says that the increase in oil price is due to continuous increase in the oil price in the world market and also because of the high importation costs as well as other costs that they pay in order to make petroleum products readily available to public transportation as well as the car owners and etc. On the other side, consumers complain as well as protesters object on the continuous oil price hike. They say that oil price hike has always been a burden for consumers and commuters because mainly of financial consideration wherein in the present, minimum wage is only imposed and they are struggling to fit their daily needs based on the wages they get from work. Yes, businesses and consumers alike are affected financially, though we can clearly see that the masses of the people belonging in the third class are the ones who are severely affected due to scarce resources that they have to which they must think of ways to fit their needs in to.
Another problem related to that is the high prices of food and commodities that are considered daily needs for a basic household unit which cause more families to experience difficulty or struggle for their daily survival. As oil price continues to increase, transportation also increase their fares and delivery costs. With this, a higher delivery cost means increase in the price of products available in the market. Of course, businesses would charge their costs on the price of products that they offer so that their business would survive, gain profit and lessen the chance of closing down their businesses so as to prevent even more unemployment in the country. With this circumstance, we again, are the ones who are severely affected and are struggling for daily living.
In relation to continuous increase in the price of oil and commodities in the market, some businesses also suffer as seen based on low sales which indicates that there are low patronize of their products. When businesses experience severe losses based on the financial aspect, corporations are forced to shut down their business which effects to the increase in the unemployment of their workers. With this, unemployment increases and most people would lose hope, others would find other jobs, and most would consider leaving their family and struggle abroad just to feed their families here in the Philippines. Due to poverty, education is also affected in a way that teachers moving out and find other high earning jobs abroad. Tuition fees increase that cause other people to stop pursue their studies and help out their families. All these scenarios are present in our society nowadays, everything and everyone seems to be affected in each and every way. Unfortunately, everyone is facing the so-called economic hardship in daily living.
Though poverty is spread all over our country, we must not lose our hope and just continue on and find a way on how to survive not only for ourselves but also for our families. So that when the right time comes, Philippines will no longer suffer from poverty but instead, Philippines will be well-known throughout the world as one of the most successful country not only because we made it through many obstacles that occurred and challenged us, but also, by the cooperation of everyone to build a better country.