Counting Potatoes

Your Biggest Monthly Expense

It may come as a surprise to most, but did you know that the price we pay for democracy is literally one of our biggest monthly expenses?

Check your payslip. How much do you pay in taxes every month? For those earning between P10,000 – P20,000 a month, taxes + Pag Ibig + SSS contributions may amount up to P4000- P5000 monthly. For those in the P20,000 – P30,000 income bracket, the charges may add up to P6000 – P7000 a month. That’s more than 30% of your hard earned money! More than what you spend on your girlfriend, more than what you send to your parents, more than what you save and far more than you are willing to give to the government! He he

Fact of the matter is, the government charges us around 30% -50% of our monthly income just so it could provide us with the services that we need: security, roads, Law and order, subsidized education, etc, etc. I may not have most of the figures correct but more or less those are the facts. For more info, take up accounting.

That means that for those paying P5000 in taxes monthly, the total cumulative cost of democracy that the government charges you for the whole year is P60,000. That’s almost as expensive as a branded Dual-Core laptop, definitely more expensive than your new 3G, 4 Mega-pixel, touch screen cell phone and most probably 10 times as much as you have saved for the whole year!

Imagine what will happen if your brand new 8 mega-pixel camera turns out to be defective? I’ll bet 10 to 1 that you’ll storm the shop you bought it from as if you’re a hound from hell. You’ll scream you’re lungs out and wont care a fig for the scandal you’re creating.

Imagine if your James Bond like cell phone gets snatched. I’ll bet you you’ll cry more tears than you did at your grandma’s funeral. Yes, it will definitely hurt. You’d toss and turn in your bed for almost a month thinking up a storm of what-ifs and what could’ve beens. Hell, it would even hurt like the first time you got dumped.

We worked hard for these things and we expect to enjoy the fruits of our sacrifices. That’s why we spent months poring over catalogues, brochures, internet reviews and such before we finally make a final decision on what camera, plasma TV, cell phone or laptop to buy. Even then, our hearts do that little flip flop as soon as we turn over our hard earned money to the cashier, looking for just the tiniest indication that we are being scammed so that we could bolt out the door...

and after… we spend days just looking over our new purchase from all angles with wonder in our eyes and sometimes… sometimes we can’t even help it if a whisper escapes our lips as we caress our newly acquired possessions.. “mmyyy preeecccioouuusssss….”

I wonder then..

Why do we so easily disregard our right to vote? Why do we so easily vote for someone just because our mother tells us “this and that politician looks nice”? Why do we so easily laugh it off every time we hear of some new scandal or if one we voted for turns out to be defective? Why do we take it as natural that our politicians are spending our hard earned money on themselves and their families?

WHY DO WE PAY AT LEAST P60,000 OF OUR GOOD, HARD EARNED MONEY EVERY YEAR AND EXPECT THE SAME LAME EXCUSES AND CORRUPT PRACTICES FROM OUR POLITICIANS?

Our right to vote, our right to basic services, our democracy is one of our biggest monthly expenses. Why should we expect lousy service in return?? would you excuse such a lousy service in Greenhills or Gilmore's?

Think about it...

	Your Biggest Monthly Expense