Name: Angeles, Lorenz R.

Section: IT-201

Subject: CONWORL

“If you can be the next president of the Philippines, how can you resolve income
inequality?”

Since the advent of the modern technology, the pursuit towards universal progress or
globalization began. The idea of creating a state wherein the population gets a fair amount of
income is the main goal of this progress, but inequality is inevitable. Even countries which seems
to have a fair system wherein the population are given fair distributions of wealth still have
inequality problems. A local study revealed to the ASEAN Trade Union Council (2011, August
6) showed that the Philippines has one of the highest rates of inequality among South-East Asian
countries. The Philippines’ Gini coefficient came out to be higher than of Thailand with 42.5
percent, Indonesia with 39.4 percent, Malaysia with 37.9 percent and Vietnam with 37.8 percent.
The stated statistics shows how divided the people of the Philippines are when it comes to
wealth. If I were to become the president, I would make sure to lessen the gap between the rich
and poor.

Christoph Gröner, a German entrepreneur whose worth are millions of euros, stated that
“If you buy cars, they go up in value; buying houses and real estate is even worth more; buy gold
and the gold prices go up. You can’t destroy money by consuming.” That is the complete
opposite of what poor people sees; they consume in order to stay alive but nothing returns to
them. It is the sad reality. Many businessmen know that but they disregard the poor in order to
stay up in the global market. A solution proposed by Mr. Gröner is to give what they have to the
future generation of Germany, so that even in a slow process, their youth could be given equal
opportunities, of course still within the limitations of the equality of outcome. With that,
everyone would be able to access the same opportunities no matter where they come from,
resulting into a population where people could be assured that they would be paid the right
amount for the work that they do.

If I were to be the next President of the Philippines, I would make sure that the
population would be able to have equal opportunities. I would restrict individuals from hoarding
wealth. There are a lot of rich people that has tons of unspent money. If I become the president, I
would make a way to prevent that from happening so that they could be distributed to those who
are in need by the forms of free housing, education, transportation, and healthcare. No one would
be discriminated; people from the provinces shall be given the same opportunities like those that
live in cities. By doing such, the difference between the rich and poor would be lessened. Japan
is a very good example. In Japan, it’s hard for capitalists to accumulate wealth because of high
taxes, especially if it is family owned. Aside from greedy businesses and organizations,
corruption is another concern. I would implement strict policies that won’t tolerate corruption,
even from the lowest positions. Politicians should be treated as normal persons, nothing more.

Inequality is inevitable, but it can be lessened; it’s the president’s job to make sure that
the citizens of their countries earns the income they need. By cleansing the government
internally and limiting the high accumulation rate of wealth within individuals, I think would be
able to create a new Philippines where citizens lives with assurance that everyone would be
given the same opportunities.
 References:

1. Article: Koike, Y. Why inequality is different in Japan. (2015, March 15). Retrieved
August 28, 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/03/why-inequality-is-
different-in-japan/

2. Article: Phl has highest income inequality rate in ASEAN. (2011, August 6).
Retrieved on August 28, 2020, from http://aseantuc.org/2011/08/study-phl-has-highest-
income-inequality-rate-in-asean/

3. Study: Inequality – how wealth becomes power (1/3) | DW Documentary

(poverty richness documentary). (2018, August 18). Retrieved on August 28, 2020,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFIxi7BiScI&feature=youtu.be

4. Study: Inequality – how wealth becomes power (2/3) | DW Documentary (poverty

richness documentary). (2018, December 12) Retrieved on August 28, 2020, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYP_wMJsgyg&feature=youtu.be

5. Study: Inequality – how wealth becomes power (3/3) | DW Documentary (poverty

richness documentary). (2019, March 24) Retrieved on August 28, 2020, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEufTD39xrw&feature=youtu.be