Have you read today's Inquirer? It's headline (Fewer Filipinos are hungry, survey shows SWS says drop due to poor's belt tightening) seems to suggest that the cute administration is doing its job of proving jobs and services (to the Filipinos) as well as an improved economy. However, as you read on you realize that it is not so. You realize that it is just another spin on the issue.
So why are fewer Filipinos less hungry? They have lowered their spending on food, that's what happened! The families interviewed have lowered their "standards" or views on what they feel should be the monthly budget for food and other other expenses (in order not to be poor.) The all-family-median home expense level needed by a family so as not to be considered poor dropped from P10,000 in the previous years to only P5,000 per month. How ever, it should be noted that a Php 5,000.00 budget today will not buy the same (number of) items today.
According to the article, Self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget that households say they need in order not to be poor, has decreased from previous years. The SWS said that since the cost of living is actually rising, a declining poverty threshold means that households are lowering their living standards -- in other words, belt-tightening.
And how again is this news good news?
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