Guy, you're really digging yourself in deeper and deeper.
1.
Here's the price list for Jollibee in the Philippines - ALL through the Philippines, from "high-wage" Manila to low-wage wherever. You can get a meal there for two bucks (80 pisos)...but lemme tell you, it ain't much of a meal...and if you know anything about the PI, you know that drink is about the size of what would be called a "courtesy cup"...if we're being generous about it. On a side note, I just went to Jollibee yesterday - there's one at Southcenter.
2. And YES, the food is NOT much cheaper. Tell me, guy - did you LIVE there? Did you go shopping at the local supermarkets or down to the outdoor market? I did - and except for certain things, food is NOT much cheaper in supermarkets there than it is here. If you want to live on the cheap - which we did when I started running too low on funds to afford the supermarket - then you go to the outdoor market called the 'palengki' (can't remember the spelling). Food is significantly cheaper there...and it's all buyer beware. Sanitation? Hah! Flies crawl all over the meat in the open air, and they don't even try to shoo them away. You do not know how old the meat or the fish is, or whether it was diseased before it was slaughtered. The veggies, though, are a safer bet if you know what to look for (and I mostly do).
So...yeah, if you don't care about what you and I know of as common-sense sanitation procedures for meat and other foods, then yes, food's significantly cheaper there. But if you want to be reasonably sure that you're not going to get e. coli or whatever, then you're going to be paying nearly as much as you do here.
3. But that's just food...which means we got away from my original point about how high-tech items like computers and cars are generally more expensive - and sometimes twice as expensive - as here in the states. Low wages didn't bring those prices down, did they?
I'll be there later this year, and I'll probably retire there late next year. Drop by and I'll show you just how expensive it can get. There's a place called Fort Bonifacio - it's got showrooms for Maserati, Lamborghini, and
Rolls Royce. Go about a klick in any direction you want, and you're back among the squatters.