Middle Class Sticker Shock

The price of globalization is much higher than I expected.

I don't mean the disparity between rich and poor, the loss of culture, the erosion of extended family (all subjects I hope to touch upon in future blog entries). I mean the actual cost of things.

I was sick late last week, hence the delay in posting. But once the fever was down, I headed to the mall. Not to keep blabbing and blogging about malls ... but that's really how many Indian twentysomethings (I'm hanging on to that category, albeit barely) pass their time. I spent Saturday afternoon browsing Metro, a mammoth multiplex of glass and neon amid others just like it in Gurgaon, a fast-growing suburb of Delhi.

Prices, in some cases, were equal or higher to those in the United States. Cheap labor may be touted as foreign companies turn to India for computer programmers, legal researchers or medical transcriptionists, but the resulting rise of the middle class has also meant a rise in the cost of living.

Here are a few acquisitions (and if you're wondering about the nature of some of them, I confess I relied on the shopping savvy of my 10- and 6-year-old nieces, Ananya and Pranati):

• A ride on a carousel of helicopters: 50 cents per child
• About a quarter pound of loose candy (Sour Patch Kids, Gummy Worms, etc): $8
• Ten mini-doughnuts smaller than Munchkins: $1.50, or $2 if you mix and match
• An ethnic-looking blouse: $30 (Target sells almost identical ones for less.)
• A child's haircut: $4 (Yes, this is cheap but still more than Naya's first haircut in Springfield, Mass., which was free.)

Last time I was in Delhi, an air-conditioned, chauffeured car cost about $10. Now I am paying about $15. Most drivers cite the rising cost of fuel for their sharp increase in rates.

I am not alone in my sticker shock. Pretty much every Indian I meet says as much.

"It's more expensive to live in India than the U.S., by the way," economist Atanu Dey said to me over dinner in Pune tonight. (I will write more extensively later this week about Dey, who used to live in the Bay Area and recently moved to Pune, and his blog, www.deeshaa.org.)

He described India's population as a pyramid with an extremely broad base -- and a very tiny tip. "But that tiny tip translates into a very large number," he said over a dinner that cost about $31. "Even if one in 1,000 people can afford something, that's 1 million people."

During our mall outing, the girls and I ate at the food court for about $12. When I asked the driver how much he needed for his lunch, he said, "Fifty rupees" -- just over a dollar.

 

By S. Mitra Kalita |  October 17, 2005; 3:43 PM ET  | Category:  In Pune
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