Cheap Work- Cheap Life!

One of the typical lazy afternoon conversations with Andrew...


A: You know what? This place sucks. I think I should find some university in some nice tropical place and go there to do my phd... live in a huge house... servants doing all the work... you had servants in India didn't you?

Me: Yes, there was a servant maid who used to clean the house and do the dishes.

A: How much did you pay her?

Me: (sheepish smile)Hmmm... you want me to tell you the figure in rupees or canadian dollars?

A: Dollars

Me: (Murmuring... 200 divided by 40...) about 5 dollars.

A: A day???

Me: No, a month.

A: What the hell are you saying!... thats about 3 cents an hour... How on earth did she survive...

Me: Well, she worked probably for an hour and a half a day at my place, used to go to other places to work after that. I think she worked in about 4 or 5 other places with about the same pay... And then you know this kinda salary suffices a bare life over there...

A: (Laughing) Are you justifying what you paid her?

Me: He he no... but when put into the Indian perspective yes... well, How much do you think an average middle class family makes a month there? The begining pay of an IT professional could be about (Murmuring ... 20000 divided by 40...) 500 dollars a month.

A: Is that enough seriously?... How would you rate your family?

Me: Middle Class

A: And there is a class lower to you which...

Me: ... that's the servant maid whom we pay 5 dollars

A: ... and there's a class above...

Me: ... yeah, those are the guys who pay us 500 dollars.

A: Yeah right, everyone has a Daddy... how much do those guys make?

Me: Hmmm... I don't really know. But I think they make about the same as the Daddys here.

A: Yeah, I have heard there are many firms over there who pay next to nothing...

(Long Pause)

Me: Don't you think that's the reason why people here are losing jobs?

A: Hmmm?

Me: I mean like an average IT professional in india would probably work 4 times more than his counterpart here and would probably cost 4 times less.

A: But I'm sure they have 4 times less brains (laughing). You see I'm guessing the work they do there is just repititive without anything new to think about and so they become the obvious choice for bulk jobs. There are far less number of people in here who work in technology related firms and yet they could be doing something far more productive.

Me: Yeah but you see...
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PS: Andrew did not mean any ill and all the conversation was in the lighter vein.