On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:18 AM, shempmcgurk <shempmcg...@netscape.net> wrote: > At 49 rupees to a U.S. dollar, that's about $2.00 and change for a 105 > rupee meal (which most of those combos cost). > > That actually surprises me. > > When I was in India in '81 in Kashmir I used to buy a Masala Dosa for > 15 cents. $2.00 for a burger, coke, and fries is about 40% of what it > would cost here, no? I would think it would be much less. > > I suppose that is saying something good about the Indian economy? That > a meal like that would be so much that enough Indians could afford it > (and, I assume, the masses still can't). >
You are surprised that there is a two tier pricing system in India? Actually there's more than that. The cost to rent a hotel room for an Indian is considerably less than the price for a foreigner to rent the very same hotel room. It's pretty much the same in all the developing countries. Add to the foreigner/native difference the yuppie tier. Wherever there's a lot of money (and there are pockets in India where high tech or commerce has raised prices tremendously) you'll start to see close to or even greater than American prices. Go into Pizza Hut or McDonald's wherever and pay pretty much American prices. Go a few km/miles away and find dosas or whatever the native dish for the indigenous price. Remember, India now has hundreds of western shopping malls and cities with flats going for what they go for in New York City.
