Laborers' elusive dream

PERCEPTIONS

- ARIEL NEPOMUCENO

Can Filipino workers become financially stable? Aspiring to become rich through labor, no matter how hard, is unrealistic with our current economic conditions. This is the reality for the more than 50 million Filipino workers in the country. The best goal that they can probably achieve is to comfortably survive their present status and, through proper education and much luck, for their children to have better lives.

Now, for the laborers who mainly rely on their brute manual capacity, even the goal of simply becoming comfortable can be elusive. Around six million construction workers, for example, can hardly afford to have their own homes, though ironically, it's them who built the houses that those in the higher brackets of our society purchase. The luxury that sprung from their collective efforts are not meant for their enjoyment. Sadly, they know this and probably have accepted it as a matter of fate.

These construction workers also will not have the funds to buy decent cars that would ply the roads and bridges that their tireless hands made. Perhaps, they are content to simply survive the day and constantly wish that the transportation fees will not increase along with the prices of basic commodities. The dreaded inflation is hardest felt by our workers who jostle their way endlessly amidst the bills, stresses and insecurities.