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Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
181–190 of 500 posts
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#182In 1919, one did not need a car to live, especially in London (true even in 2021). It was a luxury item. The lifestyle improvement of owning a car in London in 1919 was probably marginal except for social status. On the other hand, having a maid and nanny would dramatically improve your life, especially before inventions of washing machines.
It is analogous to living in places like Singapore or Hong Kong, where owning a car is less common than having a domestic worker.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have different prices for foreigner and locals in Thailand and Indonesia.
Plenty of places in the USA have the same. Disneyland is discounts for Southern California residents https://disneyland.disney.go.com/offers-discounts/southern-c... In Hawaii many business have discounts for locals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discounts_and_allowances#Speci...
The same in EU - e.g. in Italy, if you want to see a church from the inside, tourists pay a lot while the locals don't.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#184As an aside, I doubt the example of a musician not getting more productive is correct. The invention of cheap recording media and especially radio and TV has made musicians massively more productive if you measure it by number of listeners. Also fast travel makes them more productive, if you can play 5 major cities a week you make much more money than with 5 shows in the same city, hence musicians going on tours.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Thailand I can say this isn't the case
In Thailand there isn't dual pricing for food. But there is for entry to many venues. It is institutionalized by the government - for example, the entry fee to national parks for non-Thais is 10x the Thai price.
This is true, I just paid 50 baht at a temple yesterday and my gf didn't have to pay. And of course taxis might try to charge you more too.
But I meant for food the street vendors are incredibly honest. On several occasions I've given them money expecting no change (based on a price on the sign) but for whatever reason the price was different and they called me to give me change as I was walking away
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#186Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
My experience in SEA in general and Bali specifically (as a Malaysian), prices are not simply a matter of speaking the language. Vendors often charge based literally on your social class/status.
In other words: your skin color.
No... please don't put words in my mouth. Social class is somewhat related to color in SEA, but not to that extent.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#188" The couple’s annual income was around around £700 ($50,000 in today’s dollars)—£500 ($36,000) from his salary and another £200 ($14,000) in passive income. They rented a fourth-floor walk-up apartment in London with four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, and a “nice outlook on green.” The rent was £90 for a year ($530 per month in today’s dollars). To keep it tidy, they hired a live-in maid for £36 ($2,600) per year, wh…
They didn’t suggest that, it said: > Still, Christie didn’t consider herself wealthy Almost no one considers themselves wealthy. Even people that are very well-off typically consider themselves some variation of middle class, because they can so obviously and clearly see the next rung up the ladder, and how they are not on it. This point is made perfectly by her quote about how only the rich have cars.
Yes, wasn't it Bloomberg (a billionaire) who said he didn't consider himself wealthy. It turns out there are ten people in his apartment building who are wealthier than him.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#189> “The full treatment, including surgery and chemotherapy, can reach between $8,000 and $10,000 for a dog or cat.” Meanwhile, full cancer treatment for a human can easily cost 100x that, because care for pets is a free market and care for humans is very far from it.
Also because many people are willing to let their pets pass rather than pay over $10k for treatments. The same cannot be said for people.
Even the idea of spending $10K sounds bizzare to me. Probably because pet insurance wasn't really a thing the last time my family owned a pet.
Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car
#190Interestingly enough, I'm typing this in Singapore, where in 2022 it's quite common to have a "maid" (helper/domestic worker, in the current local lingo), but no car. Singapore imports domestic workers for poor neighbouring countries like the Philippines and Myanmar, which keeps wages very low, on the order of US$450/month, not too far off Christie's inflation-adjusted US$220/month. Even the fully loaded cost with go…
Sure, the cost of a car is one factor, but the bigger factor is that Singapore is small and well-connected with public transport. It's quite normal for someone to live in one end of the city and take bus / train to the other end for work.