Cost of living: USA v/s Desiland

I have made 3 trips to India in less than 2 years and had the chance to shop around for various types of goods and services during these trips as family weddings were underway.

My conclusion is that to have the same standard of living, that as a middle class person I have in US, in India I will have to spend more money per month than I do here. Even though the labor is cheaper (it is useless and have no quality in service or what it produces) everything (except a few things) else of same quality is same expensive or more.

My home in a small city of Amritsar with same facilities in the nicer neighbourhood will cost half of this..but that is not because it is cheap in India but because it is 3 times the median price in US.....there are plenty of cities in US and Canada with cleaner air , roads, water and safety where you can buy a house of same quality and with amenities cheaper than you would in any city in India.

A pair of pants at Raymonds...well..a khaki pair of pants with quality similar to Dockers...about the same price or only marginally better.

a quarter sheet birthday cake...rs 1000.....my local safeway store sells the same for $15-$20 any day.

A dinner plate in a restaurant with cleaniness, quality and service of...say Chillis...cost almost the same as it does at Chillis.

Any mithai with quality of Rajbog or even my local Lovely store...Rs 200-400 per Kg....only marginally cheaper than US.

all of above is the stuff made locally from local ingradients by the local labor...then where the fcuk is the competitive advantage coming from it being from India?

Anything that originates or has roots outside like tech items outside of India is ofcourse about the same price as in US. Cars, TVs, DVD players, Digital cameras, coke, Pepsi, Shampoo, toilet papers...or even a decent towel(actully one could buy towels at Walmart in US, ship them to India and probably still make some money)....anything same brand and quality is about the same price as in USA.

Now...clearly..even if I am exxagerating slightly....not many people can afford it in small city of Amritsar let alone anywhere else. Where are the jobs that pay rs 150,000 on avergae in places like Amritsar, Ludhiana, Karnal, Ambala...and even in Chandigarh to afford this stuff?

My observation is that lot of people living in upper class neighbourhoods(supposedly) think they are living the same standard of living as riches do in coutries like USA and Canada...well..I think not. They only live minutes or may be an hour a day like that but rest of the time it is same old shity third world living. a few..may be 1 or 2% who might be raking money...may be living somewhat decent...but rest is all illusion.

Comments like...oh even our kaamwali has "fridge" at her home now....are meaning less. a second hand, inefficient fridge in a single room home, no valuable food to put in and very poor and unpredictable supply of electricity(even if stolen) does not mean a shit for the future of this woman and her kids.

A friend bragged...10% of Indian population is about the 100 million people and they have the same buying power as the Americans...what an illusion!! 100 million of American is 1/3 of america....that is about 4.25 trillion GDP...India’s whole GDP is less than a trillion and even compensating for PPP is for away..but what about rest of the 90%?

OK...there is some progress...more than that there is inflation of prices...someone is making money...but not everyone....some roads are better than 15 years ago...a lot more larger buildings in cities...but it is going to take hell lot longer to bring everyone to a decent level of living than we think of.