One Billion

CEBU, Philippines - It’s funny how a lot of people invest thousands or millions or even billions of pesos to run campaign sorties just to win public posts that do not pay them even half of what they had spent for their campaign in just one month. Assuming but not conceding that there is no corruption involved if ever they do grab the coveted post, the every day ordinary businessman would consider this a very bad investment. After all, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize how crazy it is to spend millions in a few months and never earn it back with each month’s salary—except of course when the ROI is ill-gotten.

Haven’t you ever wondered why so many of these people who are seeking for public office will simply so anything—swallow the kitchen sink, if possible—just to bag the post? Despite the plethora of ridiculous campaign jingles and endless promises, the discerning voter will be able to tell the real public servants from those who want to be served by the public. With people inherently self-centered and seeking to live a more comfortable life, it’s often too good to be true that so many people will kill just to bag a spot that puts them in the position to serve the very least of society.

Honestly, I do not believe that you need to be a politician before you can start to address the most pressing social concerns tormenting the people around you. So, if I just had the money and if it were truly in my heart to vanquish poverty in the Philippines once and for all, I would not waste my time and resources in printing out flyers, putting up huge billboards trying to convince people to vote for me.

Call it the laziest possible way but you have to admit that if you were a billionaire and if you have it in your heart to end poverty without even thinking for a minute about self-gain, the best way would not be bust your billions trying to be the head of state. 

There are roughly 89 million (88.57 million, specifically) Filipinos today, according to the National Statistics Office. Without over analyzing it, the average philanthropic billionaire can simply give each of the 89 million Filipinos one million pesos each. Off-hand and given there are no glitches when it comes to distribution, in a matter of how many months, we would automatically and technically have a nation of millionaires. That means the billionaire would only be able to spend 89 million pesos in dole-out, and a few more in logistics and would still have loads left of the one billion pesos that he has set aside to help the poor.

Now consider a poor farmer and his wife who have ten children. If each of them were given one million pesos each, that would mean the family would have twelve million pesos and more than enough money to send each of their kids to good schools while at the same time enough money to invest or to save in the bank. This gives the family a huge hand in drastically changing the way they live. 

Investment, for the common Filipino can always come in the form of starting a business and with one million pesos at hand, one can have ample capital already. This would mean that the billionaire not only vanquished poverty but has also provided more jobs for Filipinos by making them owners of their own businesses.

With around Php 900,000,000 left, the billionaire can opt to spend the remaining money to improve schools and other social overhead which are highly essential in making sure that the Filipinos do not go from riches to rags.

This of course, is a very ideal scenario and the billionaire? A very ideal philanthropist. But if you think about it, the no-frills person would most likely resort to this kind of way to fight poverty because more often than not, the simplest approach can prove to be the quickest and best.

Really, with all sorts of problems we are facing today, it would be great not to over analyze certain complications. But realistically speaking, we are a nation that just loves to complicate and over analyze things.