I was out last week to make a spare key. The old man just put the key in the machine and in 5 seconds flat, the replica was out. How much did it cost? 4 pounds! 2 keys for 6 pounds. I know that it costs £60 per hour for a plumber. The Indian IT companies charge around $20-30 per hour in India and $60 (i.e around £40) per hour for onsite resources. Kya haisiyat hai hamari!
I bought a duvet (rajai) last week for £9 and the cover cost me £12. Isn't that funny? What's more, if I were to send the duvet to laundry, it would cost me the same as buying it new.
There is no place in the house where you can wash your clothes. There is just the bath-tub, but forget thumping and pounding clothes dhobi style. Everyone has a washing machine fitted as part of the furniture. And I doubt if people remember the manual way of washing clothes.
If British were Indian, they would have saved more, as manufactured goods are so cheap here, in relative terms. When I mean relative, it is better to factor in respective salaries rather than just convert currencies.
As this article so accurately points out, recycling and repairing is going out of style majorly. The developed countries are such voracious consumers that I don't think, in spite of all visible signs and audible noises about recycling, much of that happens here. Recycling is hardly as profitable here as it is in developing countries (labour intensive and new material available cheaply), so I think, most of the garbage and scrap is dumped, surreptitiously in third world countries.
People hardly bother about repairing their old stuff here, because there are no repair shops. DIY is the buzz word when it comes to doing the house (painting, plumbing, cleaning) coz who can afford. So basically, you may be richer here, but all the menial tasks that you hate and for which you wanted a helping hand and thought you could now afford..., well, you won't get it.
Monday, August 15, 2005
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3 comments:
We need to rate ourself on basis of charges of 'Indian' plumber, electrician, key-makers and barber. There people have more money and hence they charge more.
Additionally if you (every reader here) know there was time when Indian Kings would give rewards as gold coins weighing same as person's body weight. Now go and compare with that era.
We all know where all that money is now and your (you all there) job is to get it back, legally though!
AM.
Mereko samjha nahi your point.
Anyway, I think it is a recognized output of developed economy.
In India too, as we prosper, birth rates will fall, there will be lesser people to do menial tasks, menial workers will become more expensive. However, as most of India is still insulated from the economic prosperity that is sweeping the middle class, I think it is going to take a long time. Still, even if 1/4th of India is prosperous, it is enough to dismantle UK and US as te top economies.
About the gold coins, again there are no authentic records of that, so it could be legends past on as fact. Or just one king may have done that (my previous avatar) and now its attributed "all Indian Kings"
What I meant is the money they are using is our money. Our wealth which they took when they ruled India. All know how rich India was then.
Yes not all Kings might have done that or even one King might have done that only once but still, people were rewarded/paid in gold and handsomely.
AM.
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