Is it determined by numbers? Percentages?

Does it mean hunger, want, sacrifice, lack of opportunities?

Strangely enough, this talk of a government economist’s pronouncement that a P10,000 budget is enough for a family of five to survive made me think of how much it really costs to live with dignity versus what it means to live without a daily diet of distress, shame or hopelessness.

That figure is clearly not enough. It is disgraceful to even cite such a figure in this day and age.

If you have ever watched that segment in a daily noontime show where the hosts visit barangays around Metro Manila and pick one lucky resident to rain cash and prizes on, you would have an idea how some of our fellow Filipinos really live.

The latest one they visited was an 80-year-old woman who was living on her own. She was renting, for P1,000, a “room” under the stairs of a house. Her four children were scattered in two separate provinces, and she said she chose to live here because it was nearer the health center where she could go for check-ups. Sometimes, her kids would send her money, but when she ran short, she would take a dishwashing job at a nearby canteen.

Her place under the stairs was tiny, as we can imagine. She made do with it even though someone her age should really be in more comfortable conditions.

If there’s one thing this show has done, aside from showering people with more cash than they may have ever held in their lives, it has uncovered a veil that our society tends to put on ugly truths.

Poverty is real. It is not a concept that serves to fuel government leaders’ desire to make a difference. Most times, sad to say, those who vow to help uplift the lives of the poor have no idea of what life is really like for many Filipinos. They think it is enough to dole out money or food. They make themselves feel good by “helping” this way. Then they forget about them again.

We have millions of poor kababayans who can barely eke out a living. They live in lousy conditions, eat just enough if they eat every day at all, and worry about how they can get medical treatment with no money.

We’re not even talking about other things like shelter, utility bills, transportation, costs of sending kids to school, etc. Every cent counts.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia clarified the figure an average Filipino family would need to live above the poverty line should actually be P42,000.

A report says the figure quoted above “is based on the assumption that a household has two family members earning P21,000 each per month which, under the tax reform law, exempts them from paying income tax.”

Let’s assume the P10,000 figure used by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) undersecretary for policy and planning Rosemarie Edillon was an example to illustrate the effect of the 4.6 percent rise in inflation last month on a household budget for a family of five.

The figure quoted was a “hypothetical” one, as NEDA explained after netizens ranted about the unrealistic amount.

Even some of our public officials reacted with disbelief. Sen. Grace Poe’s description — calling it a “throwback estimate” — was on point.

“Only an economist who has been living under a rock will believe that a family of five can live decently on P334 a day,” Poe is quoted in a newspaper article. “That amount will perhaps be enough if the family will go on a forced diet, live off the grid in a lean-to, forego schooling, among other deprivations,” she added in the same report.

The flawed benchmark showed, more than anything, not just a vast divide between social classes but a glaring disconnect between leadership and the led.

The point of that NEDA presentation may have been just to show how much more money an average family has to spend with the inflation — simply a talk of numbers with no basis in reality.

But the point of all those who bashed the figure makes more sense — to bring reality into the picture.

Why not get a true grasp of how an average Filipino family would be affected by the inflation? After all, if you were going to crunch some numbers, why not go the distance and find out how much things really cost nowadays?

Even further than that, why not figure out what kind of conditions would pass for “decent” in everyone’s estimation?

For example, is P8 per meal per person enough to sustain anyone? Beyond food and non-food expenses, does a person also need a budget for recreation in order to feel like a human being? In households where both parents work, how will they pay for daycare or house help? And after all that, does a person deserve a little bit more to set aside for savings?

According to Caritas Manila executive director Fr. Anton Pascual, “90 percent of Filipinos earn less than P20,000 a month.” This P20,000 figure is what the organization thinks is enough for a family to be above poverty line.

Supposing an average family has both parents earning that amount, the combined salaries still falls below the P42,000 cited by Pernia as enough to live by. And what of single-parent households or those with more than three kids?

What it all boils down to is our government leaders should step outside once in while and see the real deal so as not to be deluded by numbers that make no sense.