got bored and compared PH and US prices and now I feel weird about everything
I was just bored and started comparing random stuff between the Philippines and the US. Didn't expect it to mess with me this much. At first it was normal, like, yeah, of course the US is more expensive. But the more I checked, the more it stopped feeling that way. Food here isn't that cheap anymore, coffee is almost the same, subscriptions are basically the same, gadgets are the same or sometimes even more expensive here. I kept trying to justify it in my head, like, okay, maybe rent is cheaper here, maybe some local food is still affordable. But then I looked at the income difference, and that's where it just felt heavy. Because it's not really about the price being the same, it's about how close the prices are compared to how far the income is. Like, you can say things are cheaper here, and that's technically true, but it doesn't feel cheaper when you think about how long you have to work for it.
If something costs, say, 50–80% of a US price, but the average income here is only a fraction of theirs, the gap becomes pretty hard to ignore.So even if things are “technically cheaper,” they don’t necessarily feel cheaper relative to what people earn.
I’m not saying PH should match US wages, or that this is a simple issue. There are obvious reasons why the economies are different.
Just pointing out why it can feel like everyday costs are catching up faster than income does.
I don't know, it just made me feel like something is off. Like you're trying to live a normal life, not even anything luxurious, but it still feels harder than it should be. Anyway, just wanted to get that out of my head. Maybe I'm overthinking it, or maybe other people feel it too.