Philippine Government Officials and Employees Should Be Paid MORE!

Did you ever wonder why the middle class in the United States can't afford live-in housemaids? It's because they CANNOT AFFORD TO HIRE A HOUSEMAID FULL TIME! The average salary of part time house maid is 18,000 US dollars a year! And the only major services you're going to get are laundry and house cleaning.

A "yaya" or a nanny's average annual salary in the US is roughly around $34,000 a year. And that's only for 8 hours a day taking care of the baby you brought into this world, while your at work making a little bit over the same amount of money! In the Philippines.

These people are in the business of making your life more convenient. As such, they should be compensated for making it so. People who cannot afford these kind of convenience LEARN how to complete tasks such as cleaning their own room, their own house, cooking their own food, washing their own clothes, ironing and folding their own laundry. These traits translate to developing a better YOU. Why do you think Juan Tamad couldn't live outside the Philippines? I've never heard of "Joe Lazy".

And if you haven't heard or read it, there is a popular quote that states "a lazy mind is devil's workshop".

I digress.

I do believe, however, that giving our government officials and employees a "middle class" kind of income will somehow veer them away from the temptations of corruption. Everything begins with respect. People want to be respected or at least that's how they want to "feel". A more than decent salary becomes the beginning of this. There shouldn't be any shame for a police officer to be able to afford to live in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood all because his salary has permitted him to. Remember, his life is on the line a third of his day. Always. The same pay increase should be given to Postal Office, Fire, Utilities, Secretaries of... and their department employees and to everyone in government! This will keep corruption low!

In regard to corruption: I've always wondered why we haven't given enough to our public officials?

Don't get me wrong, corruption will always be around. It will always reside in the mindset of people who have lived it.

But when we give enough to a government employee (president included), it would really make it embarrassing to catch them cheating on taxpayers' money.

Take for instance the starting salary of being a police officer in the Philippines, which is about P14,265 per month inclusive of allowances or roughly around P171,180 a year. That's $3,804 a year! Why would I put my life on the line for $3,804 a year!?! In the rural parts of the US, where there are more trees than houses, a new police officer earns P142,500 a month! Or roughly over a million pesos a year! And that's the starting pay. Not convinced? Google it!

No wonder our cops find other creative ways to make more money. For the love of God, a call center employee in metro manila makes around the same amount, IF NOT MORE, when they start their job!

I don't want to know how much our government admin employees make. And our president's salary, which is only P60,000 a month, is a joke as well!

But then again, the question is "where are we going to get the funding to pay our leader, goverment officials and government workers REAL salary if the money is being funneled elsewhere by means of corruption?"

The answer is in all of us. Change in mindset then becomes the ultimate solution to this problem. Now, every new politician, rich or poor... can invest his time, money, intellect and efforts on making his country and its people better and still be able to go home and feed his family.

At this level, if you pay someone enough for PUBLIC SERVICE and he steals more money, then we, the Filipino People, can truly call that Government official a SELFISH BASTARD!