Too rich to receive help. Too poor to actually survive. That’s the middle class in a nutshell.

I woke up to hot weather today, debating whether to head to the coffee shop to work or stay home and make my own. Well, I stayed, and not just because of the budget. My dog is in her red days right now, so I couldn’t just leave her like that. 😅

So there I was, laptop open, scrolling through blog posts I’d been putting off reading because of work. And then I stumbled upon one that just hit different, the Dreams and Escapes blog post titled “Daily Life.“ There’s a part of it about the crisis we Filipinos are experiencing, aside from inflation, the crisis in oil and gas, and the government.

Something about it made me want to sit down and finally put into words what I’ve been feeling for a while now.

No “Ayuda”, Just Bills

Every time I look at my payslip and see how much has been deducted in taxes, something in me sinks. (Oh noooooo, huhu that’s a lot!) Not because I don’t understand why we pay taxes. I do. It’s a responsibility, and I’ve accepted that. What I haven’t accepted is feeling completely invisible in return.

We don’t qualify for “ayuda” (Aid in English). We’re not on the low-income list. On paper, we’re doing “fine.” (Hindi nyo kailangan ng tulong “You don’t need help“) But fine doesn’t pay for groceries that cost 30% more than they did two years ago. Fine doesn’t cover the bills such as the electricity bill that is so high because of so many added extra charges! That keep climbing while our salaries stay flat. Fine doesn’t mean we’re not living paycheck to paycheck too, just quietly, without anyone noticing.

I’m not asking to be handed everything. I’m asking for better public services, infrastructure, healthcare, and opportunities for everyone. Anything that shows that the taxes taken from millions of working Filipinos actually went somewhere that benefits us too. Because right now? It doesn’t feel that way.

Why can’t some people get out of living paycheck to paycheck?

The people at the bottom struggle visibly, and they deserve support. But the middle class struggles silently, and that silence has been mistaken for comfort for far too long.

We work. We pay. We comply. And yet somehow, we’re always the ones who fall through the cracks of every program, every relief effort, every policy that claims to help “ordinary Filipinos.”

We are ordinary Filipinos too. It’s about time the system remembered that.

And it turns out, I’m not just imagining it. There’s actually a term for what we’re going through: economists call it the “new poor” phenomenon.

Final Thoughts

A lot of content creators on social media are sharing ways to earn extra income, invest, save, and become more financially stable, and honestly, that’s helpful. But it will always be case-by-case. Every individual has a different income, different bills, and different responsibilities that others may not see or understand.

Yes, we have more opportunities now than ever before, but with that comes a rat race that’s just as exhausting. It’s not easy, but it is fulfilling once you get there, and I won’t take that away from anyone who made it work.

I know nothing is impossible. But in the meantime, can we also give a little hope and acknowledgment to those who are already doing everything right, paying their taxes, juggling responsibilities, and simply trying to survive? Because for a lot of us, life isn’t a financial goal board right now. It’s just survival, one paycheck at a time.

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