This Week's Blogs

I Belong to the 1%, LOL

When I gave out my financial situation including my savings and assets to AI, it replied back that I belong to the 1% of the richest people in the Philippines. I nearly died laughing.

I was retired, living in my own home in a below average neighborhood in the Philippines and voluntarily worked part-time even though I was retired. I didn’t own a car, my house was old and has seen better days and not even large. Sure, I have money saved for a rainy day but even a week’s confinement in a hospital would easily wipe it out. This was why I almost died laughing. I figured, AI must have made a mistake.

When I described my assets much clearer to AI and asked why it categorized me as among the 1%, it explained that I wasn’t aware how low was the standard of living in the Philippines that even my meager financial position was enough to land me at the 1% of the richest people in the Philippines.

This time, I wasn’t laughing. I was now sad but not for me, but for the state of my country. So, 99% of Filipinos are either average or poor, and since I’ve read that the majority of Filipinos live in poverty, then by simple logic, at minimum 51% of Filipinos live in poverty. To repeat: this is the minimum logical figure.

But I’m not here to discuss the semantics of poverty. I’ve learned long ago that no matter what government or society does to eliminate poverty, it won’t go away. You can move to a democratic or communist country and there would poverty in both countries. Why? Because poverty is a natural occurrence in life. It just happens. You might be rich one day and suddenly an economic downturn, accident, court case, health problems and many other factors can wipe out your fortune in an instant. It just happens especially to those who don’t save money or unable to save money.

So, I’m a bonafide 1% of the richest people in the Philippines. Big deal, I’m still struggling to make a living. The word 1% means nothing to me.

Maybe the same is true for many 1% people like me even in such countries as America. I don’t know, I didn’t bother to ask AI or research it online. What’s important for me is that I should tell all those people rallying in the streets and complaining about the 1% to stop what they’re doing and instead focus on the 0.001% of people who owns what I believe to be 90% of the world’s wealth. No, I’m not angry with the 0.001%, I just want those demonstrators against them to see the much bigger picture.

The 1% these people might be complaining about are most likely your average person who scrimped and saved all their life just so they have something decent to retire on. Believe me, being 1% is nothing to shout about these days especially when we get hints from the business media that a new trillionaire class of ultra rich people would rise soon…

There are also people who claim that not all rich people are in the rich list like those in the “Fortune 100” rich list. They say that they are not listed because they want to keep their wealth information a secret.

Are there already trillionaires among us that we don’t know about?