July 16, 2007

What can you do with a day's pay?

Lempiras, Honduran moneyA day's pay or pocket change?

I have this habit that I just can't get over. El Jefe doesn't like it so I usually keep it to myself but every now and then it just pops out.

Back in the U.S., I would often justify buying some silly kitchen gadget or a new plant or other nonessentials by telling myself, "Well, it only costs the same as a trip to McDonald's."

Here in Honduras, I often think of the cost of things as how it compares with an average unskilled Honduran worker's daily wage. Let's use L.100 per day as an example (US $5.29). Agricultural workers and maids usually make less than this, unskilled construction workers are now usually making a little more, but L. 100 is a nice round number.

So, with my 100 lemps, I could buy:

  • a Wendy's combo and a Frosty.
  • a taxi to town and back for one of us, or both of us if we were lucky enough to catch a collectivo taxi.
  • 2 1/2 pounds of meat
  • a Triple Chocolate Meltdown at Applebee's − no wait, I'd need another L.22 for tax and tip, but I think they have one or two other desserts in the L.100 price range.
  • a chicken and a small bag of rice.
  • about 1 1/2 gallons of gas.
  • 3 loaves of bread
  • a banana split and a cappuccino at Baskin Robbins.
  • 50-100 bananas.

So looking at it another way, my day's pay could cover my transportation to work or it could allow me one meal per day, but not both.

Newer posts Older posts
Home

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...