The rich in the Philippines live in mansions and the poor eat garbage. Why is the gap between the rich and the poor in the Philippines so wide?
The level of economic development is disproportionate to the population, the distribution is seriously uneven, and the class system is an obstacle. The United States has implemented the so-called "Philippine policy" in the Philippines. They strive to win over prestigious local people and place them in various major functional departments in the Philippines, covering provinces, cities, districts, towns, etc. In addition, Americans who control the education sector insist on using English as the medium of instruction, establish a publicly funded study abroad system, and send a large number of local outstanding talents to the United States for education.
Implant pro-American thoughts into your mind. This series of measures resulted in the formation of a small but elite upper class in the Philippines. They controlled a large part of the country's wealth and became a veritable "landlord class." Through military supplies to the United States and a series of economic support from the United States, the Philippines quickly became one of the richest countries in Asia, on par with Japan, Singapore and other countries.
The Philippines can be summed up by a classic line from "The Shawshank Redemption": "Some people are busy living, and some are busy dying." According to the World Health Organization, 35% of the Philippines’ 16 million people live in slums. "Villas for the dead, slums for the living." This sentence is often used to comment on the gap between rich and poor in the Philippines. Manila, the capital of the Philippines, was known as the most prosperous city in Asia alongside Japan before World War II.
Today, the BBC rates it as the most dangerous and densely populated place in the world. Although universal values advocate equality for all, the reality is so cruel; like many countries, the Philippines also has "invisible class divisions" and the standard of measurement is income. Tens of thousands of people live here side by side. No one thinks about security and the spread of disease here, because they are busy every day just to survive the next day. They have no food. Many children find discarded food in the trash.