THE HSBC's forecast on how many Filipinos will attain the exalted status of millionaires by the year 2030 is the kind of reportage that incentivizes readers to go on and read. Even paupers like me and my neighbors who have no hope whatsoever of joining that celebrated, coveted rank in our inconsequential lifetimes, have the incentive of reading about the coming surge in the number of Filipino millionaires, maybe for purely academic purposes. Remember that even the members of the 99 percent that participated in the "Occupy Wall Street" protests years ago in major US cities were not immune to wealth data voyeurism.

The rich are different from you and me, true. Despite the vast gap, the general public still wants to have some general idea of how rich the filthy rich are and how ordinary rich are those with ordinary riches. Even the man on the street in this nation of massive and intractable poverty has a general idea of who are the richest families in the country.

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