As beautiful as the Philippines is, it still has millions of people experiencing abject poverty. Activists shout of inequality, while apologists tout the yearly GDP of the country as a sign of improvement. Most discussions on it end with amped polarity, the left blaming inequality, while the right praying for wealth to trickle down.
A meme page which had such that discussion piqued my curiosity. While recordkeeping is lacking, we do have generalized data on regional GDP and GINI indices. Using data from PSA, I went ahead and took a look at how it really is, outside of meme pages for political ideologies.
With this simple plot, what can we say about these generalized statements? Why do some regions move differently from its neighbors? Do improvements in these numbers even get in time to the ailing people?
Photo by Nikko Balanial on Unsplash