Economy How is India So Cheap?

[Fox by the Sea]

so its like a 6/10?

5/10?

5/10 was Kenya.
3/10 was Mali

India is like a 1/10. i don't ever want to go there again.

 

[shunyata]

Okay. Pakistan. Somalia. Rural china. How do you live. On 5 cents an hour? Is the food free, is it subsidized, do these 600 million ppl own land and eat the food off the land. Do they go in a jungle and eat fruit. That wage is lower than the value of the land and water and raw materials needed to make food.

Ignoring transportation, housing, taxes, 40 cents a day isnt enough to buy the bare minimum amount of calories needed to survive. At least by any method ive seen.

Lower cost of living, lower standard of living.

If I move to rural Thailand I would have a lower cost of living than in California, but I'd still be paying much more for goods and services than 90% of my neighbors if I want a comparable or better standard of living.

 

[Cajun]

5/10 was Kenya.
3/10 was Mali

India is like a 1/10. i don't ever want to go there again.

Kenya only 5/10? What the? I'd visit any of those including India. But sadly have not..

 

[Fox by the Sea]

Kenya only 5/10? What the? I'd visit any of those including India. But sadly have not..

Yeah you probably only think about Kilimanjaro and the Masai touristy reserves.
the rest, not so great. There's sometime fucking lions running around in Nairobi. there's grenades being thrown by al shabab in cars waiting at the stop. i've been to markets where i've seen naked people selling grilled monkey meat. it's a shitshow. all the whites live in "hotels" which are compounds guarded by south african mercs. you get your car checked with a mirror underneath to see if you didn't get something planted on you while in traffic.

of course it's a 5/10. hell, after 6 you're in balkan territory. and there's no comparison.

 

[Cajun]

Yeah you probably only think about Kilimanjaro and the Masai touristy reserves.
the rest, not so great. There's sometime fucking lions running around in Nairobi. there's grenades being thrown by al shabab in cars waiting at the stop. i've been to markets where i've seen naked people selling grilled monkey meat. it's a shitshow. all the whites live in "hotels" which are compounds guarded by south african mercs. you get your car checked with a mirror underneath to see if you didn't get something planted on you while in traffic.

of course it's a 5/10. hell, after 6 you're in balkan territory. and there's no comparison.

Interesting. Not sure if it's still as bad as bombs being planted. I have spent time in Nicaragua with soldiers with machine guns on street corners of Managua but nothing like what you describe. I haven't been to a place where I felt totally unsafe. Food at least was good? Except if you bought it sold by a naked man. Not sure if that's a plus or not... only countries in Africa so far are South Africa and Egypt. They were phenomenal but Kenya sounds unstable politically if that much mess is going on.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

Food at least was good? Except if you bought it sold by a naked man. Not sure if that's a plus or not... only countries in Africa so far are South Africa and Egypt. They were phenomenal but Kenya sounds unstable politically if that much mess is going on.

Lol, i obviously didn't eat anything outside the hotels. I stayed at the Radisson and the Marriott and always had my meals there, which as you can expect are just like at any other hotel like that. as a tourist almost all african countries have tourist bubbles that allow you every luxury but give you a completely distorted image of the country. you really should never draw conclusions about a country based on your experience of throwing thousands of dollars at local tourism. they will make you feel like you're in the best country on the planet.

 

[Cajun]

Lol, i obviously didn't eat anything outside the hotels. I stayed at the Radisson and the Marriott and always had my meals there, which as you can expect are just like at any other hotel like that. as a tourist almost all african countries have tourist bubbles that allow you every luxury but give you a completely distorted image of the country. you really should never draw conclusions about a country based on your experience of throwing thousands of dollars at local tourism. they will make you feel like you're in the best country on the planet.

I'm normally a hostel guy when traveling except with the wife. She liked posh so we went posh. Even in a bubble things like car bombs etc is pretty sketchy. Nowhere I've been has been like that. Any country you've loved in terms of 3rd world?

 

[Fox by the Sea]

Even in a bubble things like car bombs etc is pretty sketchy. Nowhere I've been has been like that.

you just had one in america )

 

[Cajun]

you just had one in america )

Ok that's fair. Not common tho. And that's exactly the reason I go anyway. Most likely that won't happen to you statistically

 

[Fox by the Sea]

Any country you've loved in terms of 3rd world?

Mongolia. By far one of the best places i've ever been to.
....as long as you get out of Ulanbataar.

 

[Protectandserve]

Did you get food poisoning while over there? Literally every single person I know who has been to India got violently ill at some point

We only ate at a few places that had been pre checked by others. A handful of people still got sick.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

This guy offended a lot of people with what he said about India.

I've literally been to that same station in Delhi and taken that same train. The experience the person had is very typical, though the youtuber isn't the most diplomatic speaking person in the world to say the least. India just has so many people, and not a very well diversified economy so a huge chunk of the population lives hand to mouth. And yeah, it's cheap because so few people have money because such little things of exchange value is produced in India versus their population. So simple economics - people can't move, so the labor supply is GREATLY out of whack with demand. As such, medicine and food is cheap as hell. The other thing that flies under the radar is the gender roles, where the women really stay in their lane and the place feels passionless and sexless.

If you're an obvious foreigner, yes, you will be harassed non stop for business, and so many bush league scams and crap. Other annoyances are things like if you go to a restaurant and ask if they have beer, they will say yes even if they don't, and someone will run to some convenience store or whatever that does have beer, and bring it to your table 15 minutes later lukewarm.

I enjoy the culture shock though - I'd never stay at a Hilton or whatever because that kind of experience is too familiar; and all in all I had a great time because of that - as odd as it sounds it's quite the experience to be walking down a tiny walkway in Varanasi and then having people carrying a dead body brush up against you as they make their ways to he burning area. I also never got sick luckily, despite eating in very questionable places including some river "washed" foods. But no, I had zero desire to ever go back, because outside of headline attractions (Taj Mahal is one of the most stunning things one can ever see in person IMO) and that initial interest of things being very "different", the novelty of being there would just go into pure nuisance for me.

Anyhow, to me, it's in the total "one-and-done" category of places definitely worth visiting, but a return visit is a very hard sell. It's most akin to Egypt for me - another place where there are some amazing historical attractions and sights, but a rather soul destroying experience otherwise.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

What's funny is sometimes people from west look at the prices in the countries like India and say ''wow India is so cheap, we pay x amount of money for that in here ''
i guess they think wages are the same in India and the US lol

I actually think most people do indeed understand that places are cheap given what 1st world time/money can buy comparatively and aren't ignorant of the fact that wages are different. You'd have to be pretty dense not to seeing all the amount of beggars and desperate people you come across in India amongst other monetarily deprived countries.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

We only ate at a few places that had been pre checked by others. A handful of people still got sick.

You dodged a bullet then. A relative of mine for so sick he has reoccurring bouts randomly for a year after and his digestion is a bit messed up still

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

How is India so cheap? I see that you can live on like $0.50 a day. IT workers get paid like $1-2 an hour. How? Ive been to lower cost of living countries but never the third world.

Even the absolute shittiest place in the West you would have to make at least idk $3k to survive. $150/mo for rent and $100/mo for everything else would be probably the minimum without government assistance in like romania or somthing cheap. But thats a lot more than $300/year. Maybe its different because theyre in the tropics and food grows everywhere.

Food is subsidized in India and these people live in very humble homes they probably build themselves. But that's the people living on $0.50 a day. They also have free healthcare so they don't die from diarrhea etc. But it's certainly a very shitty life.

The IT workers making $2 a hour will lead a life that is more akin to somebody making $30k in the US. The main difference are housing costs, you cannot simply build a small shed in a major US city and live there, you can set up a tent but then you're homeless.

 

[Noveltymortar]

I’ll never understand why its ok to talk this way about Indians but not other ethnicities.

Indians are terrible fighters.

 

[JBJisGOAT14]

Stubbornness i guess. The rural red states are poor as hell and can't afford to move. California on the other hand is having people actively move out in numbers.

Honestly, neither candidate were ever going to help out the poor. It is interesting seeing these trailer park trash fly draft dodgers flag this billionaire elite gives a fuck all about them. If I had to choose LA or some shit hole in Arkansas, I am taking LA all day. Weather is beautiful and lots of shit to do…plus better looking full toothed women.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

I enjoy the culture shock though - I'd never stay at a Hilton or whatever because that kind of experience is too familiar; and all in all I had a great time because of that - as odd as it sounds it's quite the experience to be walking down a tiny walkway in Varanasi and then having people carrying a dead body brush up against you as they make their ways to he burning area. I also never got sick luckily, despite eating in very questionable places including some river "washed" foods. But no, I had zero desire to ever go back, because outside of headline attractions (Taj Mahal is one of the most stunning things one can ever see in person IMO) and that initial interest of things being very "different", the novelty of being there would just go into pure nuisance for me.

India's tourist attractions are underrated, imo. Everyone knows about the Taj Mahal, but there are others

Red Fort

Golden Temple

Jama Masjid

Agra Fort

Meenakshi Amman Temple

It sucks that all this gets overlooked by the grinding poverty and conditions. Even seasoned travelers are always warning that India isn't for beginners.

 

[Cajun]

India's tourist attractions are underrated, imo. Everyone knows about the Taj Mahal, but there are others

Red Fort

Golden Temple

Jama Masjid

Agra Fort

Meenakshi Amman Temple

It sucks that all this gets overlooked by the grinding poverty and conditions. Even seasoned travelers are always warning that India isn't for beginners.

I'm in

 

[Osculater]

Doesn’t seem much different than California and their drug addicts shitting in the streets. San Fran says hi

The Tenderloin smells of piss and shit LOL