Comments on: The High Cost of Living http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:30:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: kanchan kaushik http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-17509 kanchan kaushik Fri, 16 Jun 2006 08:31:06 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-17509 It is surprising that indians purchase things at higher rates and call it a poor country but actually we ourselves are responsible for this high and unaffordable prices. It is surprising that indians purchase things at higher rates and call it a poor country but actually we ourselves are responsible for this high and unaffordable prices.

]]> By: Loknath http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-10171 Loknath Mon, 03 Apr 2006 12:22:37 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-10171 Hi Atanu, The PGTEC based approach is a fantastic and fool proof inidcator of what "being rich and poor" means across the globe. Another one that i followed was Big-Mac index but it is far from accurate. I always envied (though as a patriot and US baiter ) why the hell God give America so much, but like every rational being i justify for a moment that if not richer, i am happier.. i have family, friends and peaceful life and dal-roti..and crap. but one thing can sure be concluded.. we have been slaves for centuries.. of our rulers and our elected governments. no one ever emphasized such comparisions in public..may be our legislators are scared to put these facts honestly.As usual successive governments have believed in keeping us in dark with as little education as possible. May i request you to make a relative PGTEC table with India as 100. I am sure (without complete facts as of now) that India will still be amongst the bottom 20 poorest countries in the world. The progess which the country has seen in terms of income and employment and globalization et al in the past 10 years has happened by default. left to the same semi-literate bastards (who always got relected), this would have only become worse.At least we can buy pizza's and apartments, cars and education on emi's now, again at interest rates atleast thrice that in USA. Keep posting these feel-bad and good comparisions and send some copies to our ministers-PC, MMS et al , if possible.Even they have would have never thought on these lines. PC is always happy to see sensex soaring (though FII's make 50% of the money)for which he doesn't leave a chance to take credit...he is one arrogant b*****d L Hi Atanu,

The PGTEC based approach is a fantastic and fool proof inidcator of what “being rich and poor” means across the globe. Another one that i followed was Big-Mac index but it is far from accurate. I always envied (though as a patriot and US baiter ) why the hell God give America so much, but like every rational being i justify for a moment that if not richer, i am happier.. i have family, friends and peaceful life and dal-roti..and crap. but one thing can sure be concluded.. we have been slaves for centuries.. of our rulers and our elected governments. no one ever emphasized such comparisions in public..may be our legislators are scared to put these facts honestly.As usual successive governments have believed in keeping us in dark with as little education as possible. May i request you to make a relative PGTEC table with India as 100. I am sure (without complete facts as of now) that India will still be amongst the bottom 20 poorest countries in the world. The progess which the country has seen in terms of income and employment and globalization et al in the past 10 years has happened by default. left to the same semi-literate bastards (who always got relected), this would have only become worse.At least we can buy pizza’s and apartments, cars and education on emi’s now, again at interest rates atleast thrice that in USA.

Keep posting these feel-bad and good comparisions and send some copies to our ministers-PC, MMS et al , if possible.Even they have would have never thought on these lines. PC is always happy to see sensex soaring (though FII’s make 50% of the money)for which he doesn’t leave a chance to take credit…he is one arrogant b*****d

L

]]> By: Jayakumar http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-7327 Jayakumar Wed, 22 Mar 2006 01:09:29 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-7327 Just saying something only slightly related: I've found, that Gurgaon for example has electronics ( I mean things like harddrives, usb thumbdrives, graphics cards, etc) prices that are in many cases nearly 300% more expensive than Malaysia, Singapore and USA. A side rant, don't you wish, more stores would advertise their prices online like http://www.lowyat.net/v2/images/pdf.gif , http://www.lowyat.net/v2/pricelist/cycom_notebook.pdf . Anyway, I guess it just shows that we've still got a long way to go in growing our markets for lots of goods. Just saying something only slightly related: I’ve found, that Gurgaon for example has electronics ( I mean things like harddrives, usb thumbdrives, graphics cards, etc) prices that are in many cases nearly 300% more expensive than Malaysia, Singapore and USA. A side rant, don’t you wish, more stores would advertise their prices online like http://www.lowyat.net/v2/images/pdf.gif , http://www.lowyat.net/v2/pricelist/cycom_notebook.pdf .

Anyway, I guess it just shows that we’ve still got a long way to go in growing our markets for lots of goods.

]]> By: Atanu Dey on India’s Development » The High Cost of Living — 2 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-7314 Atanu Dey on India’s Development » The High Cost of Living — 2 Tue, 21 Mar 2006 18:47:47 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-7314 [...] Jump to comments Permalink The cost of living is high in India, as I mentioned the last time. The dominant theme around where I live in Kalyani Nagar i [...] [...]

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The cost of living is high in India, as I mentioned the last time. The dominant theme around where I live in Kalyani Nagar i [...]

]]> By: Pardeshi http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6861 Pardeshi Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:07:04 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6861 Atanu, Regarding Burundi and Rwanda,the problem has roots in the European colonization of Africa.Wars were scarce in these countries before.The Germans and Belgian subjects were responsible for classifying the natives into castes and tribes depending on their activities and on questionable superiority of some physiological and facial appearance over others.Even the "peace loving religions" have participated in that.The citizens even after independance stick to Tutsi and Hutu ethnicity.The only reason for mass murder is the thirst for power.You can't expect much development in such conditions Atanu,
Regarding Burundi and Rwanda,the problem has roots in the European colonization of Africa.Wars were scarce in these countries before.The Germans and Belgian subjects were responsible for classifying the natives into castes and tribes depending on their activities and on questionable superiority of some physiological and facial appearance over others.Even the “peace loving religions” have participated in that.The citizens even after independance stick to Tutsi and Hutu ethnicity.The only reason for mass murder is the thirst for power.You can’t expect much development in such conditions

]]> By: sudeep http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6745 sudeep Sat, 18 Mar 2006 03:19:44 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6745 If there are'nt enough resources to support a communities consumption, there will necessarily be conflict. If the competition for resources is bad enough, this conflict will perhaps even turn violent. This is a given. At the same time, I think you also need to account for skills in the resources available to each country. A human unskilled in opearating machinary has less resources than one who does. A conglomeration of humans skilled in secondary, tertiary (I think I am inventing terms as I type) and even more sophisticated skills will have more resources (or value ?) than a group with abysmal per capita skill levels. I think your comparison of Canada/Burundi/India's land mass, arable area, water supplies etc - while illustrating a point, misses a whole lot of other kinds of wealth. If there are’nt enough resources to support a communities consumption, there will necessarily be conflict. If the competition for resources is bad enough, this conflict will perhaps even turn violent. This is a given.

At the same time, I think you also need to account for skills in the resources available to each country. A human unskilled in opearating machinary has less resources than one who does. A conglomeration of humans skilled in secondary, tertiary (I think I am inventing terms as I type) and even more sophisticated skills will have more resources (or value ?) than a group with abysmal per capita skill levels.

I think your comparison of Canada/Burundi/India’s land mass, arable area, water supplies etc – while illustrating a point, misses a whole lot of other kinds of wealth.

]]> By: Malapati Raja Sekhar http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6738 Malapati Raja Sekhar Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:55:13 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6738 I too felt same when I found Japan is cheaper when I compared with Bombay prices. Staying in a hotel of Bombay is more expensive (in terms of dollars) than staying in Kobe near Sanomiya railway station (Japan). I too felt same when I found Japan is cheaper when I compared with Bombay prices. Staying in a hotel of Bombay is more expensive
(in terms of dollars) than staying in Kobe near Sanomiya railway station (Japan).

]]> By: confused http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6736 confused Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:44:00 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6736 Delightful analysis. When I was in India recently, I went to a pub and even in dollar terms it was expenesive. Infact, some of the beer were actually more expensive than USA!!! Its not as simple as saying we are a poor country so the cost is higher...over regulation and surfeit of taxes are responsible for putting things beyond ordinary Indians. Just one example-even with the advent of low cost airlines, air travel is more expensive in India. Reasons, expesnive ATF. Petrol is another such example. Delightful analysis.

When I was in India recently, I went to a pub and even in dollar terms it was expenesive. Infact, some of the beer were actually more expensive than USA!!!

Its not as simple as saying we are a poor country so the cost is higher…over regulation and surfeit of taxes are responsible for putting things beyond ordinary Indians. Just one example-even with the advent of low cost airlines, air travel is more expensive in India. Reasons, expesnive ATF. Petrol is another such example.

]]> By: Parvati http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6733 Parvati Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:11:27 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6733 Delightfully interesting. Let's wait for the coming post on the objective measure of the cost of living... Delightfully interesting. Let’s wait for the coming post on the objective measure of the cost of living…

]]> By: Venkat Ramanan http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6731 Venkat Ramanan Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:54:39 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6731 Hey Atanu! You have analysed yet another point that I often used to think about! I think, in India, some of the costs are artificially inflated ones. I am not able to classify which one are and which ones are not, but my observation. For eg., A bottle of Benadryl, a cough syrup costs around Rs. 40/- (around a dollar). And, this is a syrup recommended by doctors even for kids! How could poor who live on $1 per day afford this one dollar drug? This is where our netas and babus brought in subsidy and also corruption with it [:)] Hey Atanu!
You have analysed yet another point that I often used to think about! I think, in India, some of the costs are artificially inflated ones. I am not able to classify which one are and which ones are not, but my observation. For eg., A bottle of Benadryl, a cough syrup costs around Rs. 40/- (around a dollar). And, this is a syrup recommended by doctors even for kids! How could poor who live on $1 per day afford this one dollar drug? This is where our netas and babus brought in subsidy and also corruption with it [:)]

]]> By: deep http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6725 deep Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:36:30 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6725 "Perhaps, one conjectures, that the per capita availability of resources has something to do with the killing sprees that last decades in Burundi, with the Tutsi and Hutus slaughtering each other." Bingo! I have long believed that violence in Africa (of the type you are describing) has its roots in competition for scarce resources. I am waiting for political economy models to bear out my intuition. Perhaps they already have, and I am not aware of their existence. “Perhaps, one conjectures, that the per capita availability of resources has something to do with the killing sprees that last decades in Burundi, with the Tutsi and Hutus slaughtering each other.”

Bingo! I have long believed that violence in Africa (of the type you are describing) has its roots in competition for scarce resources. I am waiting for political economy models to bear out my intuition. Perhaps they already have, and I am not aware of their existence.

]]> By: Harsha http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6643 Harsha Fri, 17 Mar 2006 04:39:11 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6643 The entire concept of PPP looks irrelevant to me except to console ourselves that we are 4th or 5th in PPP terms when trade happens at real exchange rate. Prices adjust themselves by underlying demand and volume. The entire concept of PPP looks irrelevant to me except to console ourselves that we are 4th or 5th in PPP terms when trade happens at real exchange rate.

Prices adjust themselves by underlying demand and volume.

]]> By: Tim http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6640 Tim Fri, 17 Mar 2006 03:43:06 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6640 "I think I have figured out an objective measure of the cost of living. I will present that the next time." You mean there wasn't one already? What about "purchasing power" or "purchasing power parity"? As an American from a small town currently living in the Tokyo area, I'm quite sure that Japan is more expensive than the US for most products, and certainly for real estate. “I think I have figured out an objective measure of the cost of living. I will present that the next time.”

You mean there wasn’t one already? What about “purchasing power” or “purchasing power parity”?

As an American from a small town currently living in the Tokyo area, I’m quite sure that Japan is more expensive than the US for most products, and certainly for real estate.

]]> By: Ishani http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6564 Ishani Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:35:15 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6564 Given an aggregate bundle of goods, purchasing power parity may be weaker in India. However, a poor American would find certain things more expensive than a poor Indian. Two examples come into mind immediately. Vegetables and fruit perhaps a consequence of more arable land in India. Another one is labor costs say, to fix a broken TV. In America, you are probably better off buying new electronics rather than getting them fixed. Given an aggregate bundle of goods, purchasing power parity may be weaker in India. However, a poor American would find certain things more expensive than a poor Indian. Two examples come into mind immediately. Vegetables and fruit perhaps a consequence of more arable land in India. Another one is labor costs say, to fix a broken TV. In America, you are probably better off buying new electronics rather than getting them fixed.

]]> By: harsha http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6563 harsha Thu, 16 Mar 2006 14:08:10 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6563 I also wonder why lesser souls console themselves looking at PPP terms, when trade happens at real exchange rates. I also wonder why lesser souls console themselves looking at PPP terms, when trade happens at real exchange rates.

]]> By: Sanjay http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6562 Sanjay Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:22:46 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6562 Compare the cost of food to income for the US(eventhough food production is subsidised) and India. Compare cost of electronics between India and the US. Until a year back, stuff here was was way overpriced compared to that in the US. Compare cost of cars. The US has a well established 2nd hand car market. In India, it is still in its infancy. Cost of a good education. There are many areas I can think of where India is costlier compared to the US or other countries. Compare the cost of food to income for the US(eventhough food production is subsidised) and India. Compare cost of electronics between India and the US. Until a year back, stuff here was was way overpriced compared to that in the US.
Compare cost of cars. The US has a well established 2nd hand car market. In India, it is still in its infancy. Cost of a good education. There are many areas I can think of where India is costlier compared to the US or other countries.

]]> By: SloganMurugan http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/comment-page-1/#comment-6558 SloganMurugan Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:51:45 +0000 http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/03/16/the-high-cost-of-living/#comment-6558 Within India, if you compare the states, I 'm sure that you will find some interesting insights :) Within India, if you compare the states, I ‘m sure that you will find some interesting insights :)

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