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Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

fullstackeconomics.com

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Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#421

Post by zo1 »

hnlmorg wrote: post #399
CSMastermind wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But we (rich white people) I hate to break it to you but rich white people are generally far less likely to be a sexual predation risk in these situations because they often have more to lose, have easier access to consenting parties, and come from countries that stigmatize that type of behavior to a much greater degree.

I'm not going to comment whether it's more or less likely than in other cultures. My point wasn't to start a race war, I was just commenting that we have a history on such topics (eg https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/rape-in-american-sla... )

But mentioning it as if white people are known for it or did it lots or have a specific history of it is quite racist. Bad things are committed by all races and slavery is certainly one of them. It's whitewashing the world's dirty secrets and then pinning them on the evil white man.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#422

Post by SuoDuanDao »

betwixthewires wrote: post #91
addaon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's describing the iPad... with off-shored real-time tutoring providing most of the value. Even for the niche that can afford that (which should be larger than the niche that can afford in-person tutoring), I'm not aware of any services.

Well, to nitpick, that aspect of the primer was to demonstrate that there are some things, specifically human voices, that were hard to automate. The "tutor" made absolutely no teaching decisions whatsoever was instructed what to say. They only provided a voice. This was a crucial point in the story. So I'd say the educational aspect was entirely automated. Most of the value was provided by the primer itself. If a ma…

> Most of the value was provided by the primer itself.

That's not what I took away from it. Of the three girls initially tutored by the Primer, for one the reading was done by many different actresses while for the other it was done by her father in a dreamlike mid-coital state. Neither of these two turned out the queen of all they surveyed the way Nell did. My take away was that what mattered was the human connection, that there had to be an adult who cared what happened even if she didn't have much ability to help, that gave the protagonist the strength to do what she did in the end.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#423

Post by pbourke »

cookieswumchorr wrote: post #307
koolba wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haggling is fun. I’m convinced the modern aversion to haggling in first world countries is because people grow up avoiding all direct confrontation. They think it’s somehow how rude to disagree with someone about the price of the article at hand. The next level of it is when they justify this “politeness” by claiming that haggling is inefficient or a waste of time.

in the west buying stuff usually requires no human interaction at all, even the cashiers are getting replaced by automatic checkout. But, on the other hand, you do need negotiation skills, be it in career, private live, or elsewhere. So maybe we all just need to do a year of backpacking and learn how to haggle

> in the west buying stuff usually requires no human interaction at all

And then you step foot in a car dealership, and you might as well be in a souk

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#424

Post by lotsofpulp »

throwhauser wrote: post #403
lotsofpulp wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because you've combined two concerns, the amount of money people make, and what level of stratification is involved in making it. The two concerns are linked. You only see widespread personal drivers and housekeepers and gardeners in less developed countries with many very poor people. Reducing the stratification by redistributing wealth via taxes and an education system is preferable mechanism of spreading opportu…

> The societies telesilla and Blahah are referring to are not ones where a housekeeper works 40 hour weeks Mon to Fri and gets PTO Nor is the "high-growth" tech sector, which is notorious for long hours and de-facto little time off. The money might be good, but the lifestyle can be miserable. You're working for billionaires instead of millionaires, but you're still in a situation where a "?" from the top means you've…

I do not even know how to respond to a comparison of the quality of life for an employee in the tech sector to a housekeeper or driver in a developing country.

One has weekends and holidays, can send their kids to fancy schools, go on international vacations, choose to retire by 40, has access to great healthcare, choose to work a different profession or their hobby or whatever they want.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#425

Post by tristor »

bregma wrote: post #302
MandieD wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The train between Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes) and Cusco had three classes, the lowest of which was restricted to Peruvian citizens and residents. To be clear, Peruvians were free to use the second and first classes if they were willing to pay, too, but only they were allowed to use the very cheap third class. If I recall correctly, the second class one-way was about US$35. It struck me as being a bit fancier (and…

I knew I was being milked everywhere in Peru. It didn't bother me because extortionate prices in Peru are still cheaper than prices in my home country. The only exception was where people insisted on being paid in American dollars. I'm not American so it never occurred to me to buy and bring American dollars to any country outside of the USA. We treat American tourists with a certain amount of eyerolling when they tr…

> good idea to have an emergency stash of the currency of dishonesty when travelling abroad

I recommend that you do some research about the economics of any country you visit. As you've already somewhat discovered, many places in Central America and South America will actually prefer payment in US dollars because the official government exchange rates from their local currency to dollars is extortionately unfair and not accurate to ForEx markets, this combined with high rates of inflation for the local currency and regular currency "resets" mean that people don't want to have their savings denominated in the local currency.

I don't know why you consider dollars to be the "currency of dishonesty", but all throughout the Americas, dollars are generally the highest valued currency because the US dominates economics and trade relations in the region. I imagine the same may be true in other parts of the world but they might preference other currencies rather than dollars (Ex: I found in some parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia that Euros were accepted in preference over local currency).

Any time you travel to a new country, do your research in advance.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#426

Post by throwaway2037 »

biztos wrote: post #113
dustintrex wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many attractions in Thailand have dual pricing, with foreigner pricing in Arabic numerals (100 baht) and local pricing in Thai numerals (๒๐ บาท). The price differential is often 5x or more.

I was visiting some temples in Bangkok recently and was amused to find there was no dual pricing; rather, there was an admission charge for foreigners and no charge for Thais. (I don’t mind this system actually, but if I were paying taxes in Thailand and still had to pay foreigner entry fees everywhere it might bug me.)

In Java, Indonesia, it is similar for Borobudur (massive Buddhist temple) and Prambanam (massive Hindu temple). Since they are both UNESCO heritage sites that have a small army of well-paid local and foreign experts constantly improving the sites, I do not mind to pay 10x or 20x compared to locals. The same was similar for temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia (Ankor Wat and friends). I have heard about some "elite level" Indian religious sites than do similar, but will offer local rates for people who carry an OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India card).

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#427

Post by virgilp »

bluGill wrote: post #360
Aeolun wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A car today cost much more than 3 months salary Depending on where you work, not that much more. But you don’t get to spend all of your gross salary on cars.

I wonder how finance worked. Today a car might cost 3 months of salary, but I can get a loan to pay it off over 6 years. If I had to buy a new car without a loan I couldn't afford it because I don't normally keep that much savings. (Ignoring retirement savings which technically I could tap into)

In Romania something like this happened with house prices. I bought my first flat just as credit was becoming available for the general population - it costed me 27k USD; at that time, it was customary that you'd pay in full for an apartment, people were actually looking suspicious at you for involving the bank!

One colleague of mine wanted to keep saving and pay for an apartment in full; he didn't manage to, even though he was more senior (read: earned more money; also he lived alone, could save more than I could). What happened was that prices increased faster than his savings rate - effectively by waiting he lost money, and eventually gave up and took a credit. Now... there were multiple factors for the increases in the housing market, credit being available was not the only one, but I do believe it was one of the main drivers.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#428

Post by lotsofpulp »

dougmwne wrote: post #407
lotsofpulp wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they end up getting done by people themselves, in much of the developed world.

No, they end up getting done by armies of gig workers.

The vast, vast majority of Americans are doing their own laundry, house cleaning, gardening, and driving.

I know quite a few households in the $200k+ income, and no one has a driver, everyone does their own laundry, and only a few have a house cleaner come by every couple weeks.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#429

Post by babyshake »

joe_the_user wrote: post #41
freddie_mercury wrote: post #16

Agatha Christie's quote is well-known but the exact same situation still holds today in many countries. Here in Viet Nam it is extremely common for middle income families to have a maid or nanny (or both) but not a car. The cars themselves are quite expensive. A Honda Civic is $33,000 by itself whereas a nanny (6-days a week, 10 hours a day) is $400-500/month and a maid who works 9 hours a week, i.e. 3 days a week, 3…

I had a fellow American friend who lived in Bali for a year in the mid-70s. When he arrived, he shopped for his own food and cooked it. But he found that, since the merchants charged people by their social class, he could hire a housekeeper and have them buy and cook his food for the same price as buying his own found. And people expect him to do this.

It seems that part of the problem in the US (at least the part I live in) is that it can be very difficult to find a maid, nanny, even a gardener who takes pride in their work. I'm sure they are out there and their customers value them and try not to lose them. I've found that using a service like Handy for cleaning never works because the workers tend to clearly really resent doing that kind of work and seem to not care if you give them a bad rating. Of course, a big part of the problem is the wage for this kind of work is not even close to a living wage in a lot of areas.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#430

Post by frenchy »

Little_Fish wrote: post #269
grandinj wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fairly common attitude in poorer countries - there is an expectation that if you are wealthy, you have (at the very least) an obligation to provide employment.

I think this has a lot of truth. My brother was based in the Philippines for a while for work and was expected to have at least a housekeeper and a chauffeur. I think having a driver was a very reasonable safety measure given the traffic there too. At the time it seemed very ostentatious to us at home, but it was totally the norm.

Car ownership, especially in Manila, is also not the norm there. There's over 110 million people on a handful of small islands. Also, public transit is way more efficient there than anywhere in North America.
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