I think people underestimate how AI will impact the Philippines in the coming years. There's a move from the US to have BPO industries be focused on prioritizing local labor. And companies in the US are already trying to downsize their human resources in exchange for automation with AI.
The Philippine economy isn't built on agriculture, it's cash cow is through providing labor elsewhere (via OFW's) and BPO industries. Since BPO industries will be the first to be impacted by AI integration, I'm expecting more lay offs in the coming years. OFW's that have jobs that can still be replaced by AI are also threatened. Imagine the decrease in remittances abroad? expect the peso to weaken and this further strengthens the cost of import and adding more to local inflation.
It's going to be a domino effect and the country isn't equipped with the infrastructure for manufacturing services (an opportunity that could have been grabbed decades ago) to absorb the blow of unemployment. We're seeing threats to recession in real time and there's not much buzz on local media to cover it, why?
Well, if you have a nation that has low financial literacy and the mainstream masses are easily caught up with political drama of the week, you get a problem brewing unnoticed until shit hits the fan.
Imagine millions of people being laid off, those that have a remote work setup, VA's and freelancers with clients outside PH slowly entering the unemployment statistics. The government doesn't have a program to address that upcoming crisis because it still doesn't have an answer to today's current unemployment and underemployment problem. Everyone should be worried.
At an individual level, I have job security since my job even in pre-AI and post AI era is still going to be in demand. But this doesn't mean I can rest easy through retirement because the Peso depreciation on top of existing high taxes is the real menace.
I'd say my income lets be live middle class but give it 3 decades more and I'll be in poverty if I don't do something. The calculations above are inaccurate but it gives me a close to the real estimate since inflation isn't computed based on how much the actual goods are being sold right from then and now, it's only an estimate based on the basket of goods. So if the price of chicken isn't weighted heavy on the index, then that couldn't represent the actual inflation of the price of chicken now.
I'm saying everyone that isn't well off financially now will have a hard time living in their retirement years even with pension. However, I understand that young dumb and broke as an expression exists for a reason. People can't see the future consequences of their actions unless they live in the moment regretting it in real time.
I tend to sell myself the fear of living long because as much as my existential dread compels me to think whatever I might or might not have any meaning, what if I'm still alive by then figuring things out, broke and old. So even if I'm living close to financially free, I'm still treating everything like a rat race because there's no escaping.
No one became financially free living on their wages (without extra fund injections from other sources or old money). And the pension experiment the Philippines started decades ago are showing how it's not feasible to live with the current rates monthly because nobody foresaw how bad inflation is going to be decades forward.
My realistic and pessimistic sides are already screaming a depressing future economically in the Philippines and electing a new leader wouldn't be able to fix what several terms have already destroyed.
Learn a skill that is relevant even in an AI era and start targeting careers that make you in demand in an AI era. That's my piece of advice to an older version decades ago. By luck, I happen to be in a career path that covers that so I got that going for me which is nice.
Thanks for your time.