THE GREATEST INJUSTICE of our time is that the wealth gap continues to widen in a system supposedly designed to free the markets and provide everyone with economic freedom—yet wealth is consolidated amongst the very top, while the working class is left to pick and fight for the crumbs.

In the past year, Filipinos have been exposed to wide-levels of systemic corruption ongoing in the country. As the flood-control scandal continues to unfold and the impeachment proceeds, political polarization has further increased. In addition to this, months ago, Enrique Razon was publicly declared as the first-ever Filipino to become a trillionaire, contrasting this, the farmers that feed our population and the working class that keep the nation up and running earn barely enough to make a living.

Amidst the political unrest and ever-glaring wealth disparity, what is alarming is that the dissatisfaction and anger that should be directed at those in power and perpetuating this system of inequality are too often targeted towards the marginalized. Content creators are capitalizing on this and are using their platforms to further the outrage towards the poor. Rhetoric, such as “it’s easier to be poor than to be middle class,” citing government programs that provide free healthcare, education, government subsidies, and monetary aid, has been spread around and eventually took on a life of its own as it gained traction and virality. 

Those spreading said rhetoric fail to understand the various complexities and the lived realities of those truly struggling, and are instead viewing the situation in a vacuum and from a place of relative privilege. This perspective overlooks the realities of poverty. Government assistance is not a substitute for financial stability; it is a safety net designed to prevent families from falling into even deeper hardship. Access to subsidized healthcare or educational assistance does not erase the daily challenges faced by the most vulnerable. To suggest that poverty offers advantages over financial independence ignores the lived experiences of millions of Filipinos who continue to navigate circumstances shaped by inequality rather than personal choice.

The uncomfortable truth is that many who identify as middle class assume they are economically secure, yet that sense of stability is often more fragile than it appears. A prolonged illness, sudden job loss, or family emergency can rapidly exhaust years of savings. Without comprehensive social protections, many households live in a state of financial precarity despite being employed. This reality demonstrates that the divide separating the working and middle classes is often far narrower than the gulf separating both from the country’s wealthiest elites.

“No war but class war” is often dismissed due to its origins, but the sentiment rings truer today than ever. For far too long, Filipinos have been taught to look sideways at one another instead of looking upward at the forces that shape their struggles. The farmer is blamed for needing assistance, the worker is blamed for demanding better wages, and the poor are blamed for their poverty, while those who benefit most from an unequal system escape scrutiny. But the people struggling to survive are not each other’s enemies. The real challenge is confronting a system that allows a few to accumulate unimaginable wealth while millions fight over increasingly limited opportunities.

Solidarity among ordinary people is not merely a political idea—it is a necessity. We should not be fighting each other for survival; we should be questioning why survival has become so difficult in the first place.