If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?

Let’s be real here. Frankly, I will keep it. And if I am required to give it away, I’d rather give it to friends and family.

Geez, what a difficult prompt. One that was possibly designed to subjectively measure the writer’s moral values and social awareness. Too bad I’ve been the “goody two shoes” girl for the last 33 years of my life and I’ve only recently started to learn how to put myself first. So let me be selfish for once, even just in this imaginary scenario.

As someone who moved from an impoverished country (Philippines) to a first world country (Australia), and an accountant / tax agent at that, I can point out the major things that are fiscally different.

Generational wealth. Parents forming trust funds for their kids. It’s a norm to inherit properties. Children don’t need to start from scratch because their parents made sure their lives are set. And couples don’t marry just for the sake of it; in fact, they make sure that they are ready for it first. And while there are still big imbalances down under, wealth in Australia seems to be more evenly distributed than most of the other richest nations. In 2022, Australia’s median wealth per adult was more than USD$247k. [https://www.savings.com.au/savings-accounts/how-wealthy-are-australians]

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the opposite is true. Generational trauma is a lot more common than generational wealth. Majority of the population is poor. Couples pop out babies like nothing. Corruption is rampant, heck, a lot of charities and religious organizations have been under hot water for this issue. As for politics, people vote for the most unqualified candidates and officials with criminal records. Laws have no teeth for people with money, and so scammers get away easily. Also, Filipinos are so merciful that some beggars earn more money daily than the average salaryman.

I believe it is a cop-out answer to say that I would give a million dollars to charities or the poor. I have learned that if I give it away, it will only be mishandled one way or another. I’d rather put up my own charity and set a rigorous vetting process to ensure that the select few beneficiaries will be indeed deserving.

But again, if there is no rule against keeping the money, I would keep it so that the “generational wealth” can start from me. And so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about birthing a child, and at least can say that I am able to give them a fighting chance in this cruel, cruel world.