Price. Discriminaton. For economists, put the two words together and you have a microeconomic concept. You have the first-degree price discrimination, second-degree price discrimination, and the third-degree price discrimination. But for a Filipino society and a people that has been with a history filled with social strata and one’s prejudice of the other levels of the strata, this two words might have more sense and meaning to them, although they don’t know how the economists manipulate such concepts. There is more than meets the eye. For the Filipino society and its social strata, price and discrimination is more than the concepts, the graphs and the computations that the economists and the economics majors are doing. It’s more of the current situation of the nation. It’s how the social classes of this nation have been rubbing elbows against each other, and how it has caused so much animosity, hate, and commotion between the social classes. The price and discrimination thing more like reflects the elitista/konyo/mayaman vis-a-vis the jologs/masa/mahirap. It’s the best reflection of the said concept because it involves money talks and one’s social status will show up in the price discrimination schemes.

As has been said, there are three degrees of price discrimination. And of all the price discrimination degrees, the second degree is probably the most discriminating price scheme of the three. But it doesn’t quite say that the third and the first degree price discrimination is also reflective of what’s happening in this country’s social strata. They have major effects, too. But why do I say that the third second price discrimination is probably the greatest discriminating price scheme? This is the most frequently found form of price discrimination and involves charging different prices for the same product in different segments of the market. The key is that third degree discrimination is linked directly to consumers’ willingness and ability to pay for a good or service. It means that the prices charged may bear little or no relation to the cost of production. Second-degree price discrimination involves charging different prices for different quantities. This you will note is also the source of the bulk-buying economies of scale discussed in the previous chapter on cost theory. A family pack of soap powder or biscuits tends to cost less per kg than smaller packs. This of course discriminates against people living alone, often pensioners and students. In some supermarkets the price per kg of product is listed, which helps the customer by providing information on which to base decisions on.

What the monopoly does is they produce a product or service, segment the market according to their forecasts, and tag them with a corresponding price, according to what can the consumers offer for their good. It may seem harmless at first, even beneficial at times. But underneath it, this scheme is also demeaning to the lower classes of the social strata. Well infact, all of the price discrimination schemes can be demeaning to the lower levels of the social class and those who can’t afford more what their money can give to them. Just take the case of the second-degree price discrimination scheme.Imagine this, you are checking in a hotel. They give you the list of rooms and the rates and you found out that your money is only fit for the lowest room rate. And then they give you this room that’s smelly, dirty, and has a faulty airconditioning unit. But that’s still a hotel service. Same service. Isn’t that demeaning? This also happens in hospitals, wherein the classification differs from a ward, to a single room, to a suite. All are hospital room services, but the features are different, and also the price tags. It’s really demeaning to the lower classes of the society.

It’s the same product or service nonetheless but the monopolistic firms manipulate the prices and the different social classes. They can degrade the product or the service for the lower classes and just reserve the normal and excellent ones for those willing to pay more - which are the rich and elite. You could see it almost everywhere. The rich go to well-off malls like Glorietta, Greenbelt, Rockwell, Shangri-La Plaza, Robinsons Galleria while the other lesser people are just content in going to lesser malls like Ever Gotesco and SM. They go to schools like UP, La Salle, Ateneo but those who are not well-off only settle for the lower-class schools. But it’s still schooling. The quality is only not that good for the not so well-off. It’s not bashing. This is reality. Sometimes you just cannot do anything about it. It only comes in naturally and it’s hard to stop. One monopolist can’t force those who don’t have much more money to pay more for them to avail more. It’s hard. This has really caused animosity and much commotion between the rich and the poor. And price discrimination schemes in monopolies perfectly show the rift between the rich and the poor. It’s getting larger. The rich are getting richer. The poor are quite improving, but not as well as the rise of the rich. Some are really going down even more.

What can be done about this? I don’t know as of now. It seems that the rift is cannot be sewn together again. I guess we really to find a solution for this problem. So that monopolies won’t be demeaning and overly discriminating. Maybe the government can act. But the present administration’s primary agenda is economic growth, not the real economic development. Investments come and go, the peso value is appreciating, the stocks are rising but the thing is that the same rich people are still rich, and they keep on getting richer. The poor are still there in the bottom. Monopolies are still earning moolah and $$$. The listless people are still nowhere to be found. Something has to be done to help the lesser people. It’s not gonna be easy and it’s not a short term, one time big time plan. We need to act now. And do something to help them raise themselves.