Maybe you are a type-A, pocket protector-wearing, penny-pinching,
nervous-Nellie budgeter in your home. You know when you go into work
what percentage of your time is paying for taxes, what percent of
your time is going towards your mortgage, your food, car payments,
vacation fund, and what part sits burning a hole in your pocket.
Or maybe you don't worry about that stuff, que sera sera,
and when all the bills have been paid you go celebrate with a
shopping spree at Nordstroms, or other times you're looking under the
cushions of the couch to find enough spare change for a milkshake.
Regardless of how much or little you
make, each of you kind of has an idea how much money you have for
entertainment, shopping, eating out and the like.
A recent story in The Economist looked at how long people
have to work in order to afford a beer in different countries. In
America, a person at minimum wage has to work I think only fifteen
minutes to afford a pint of average-priced domestic beer. Mozambique
was not listed in that study. However, a quick calculation on my
napkin tells me that a Mozambican working at minimum wage (which is
not an average Mozambican) needs over two hours in order to
afford a beer.
Statistically, in America, you make more than minimum wage and
spend even less time affording that beer.
Statistically, in Mozambique, you don't have a job that pays a
minimum wage the money you live each day would barely cover the price
of just one beer. If you're a resident of Nampula, its about two
beers every three days. And that is with absolutely no
other purchases.
And yes, beer and alcohol is a real destroyer of families here.
Its a vice that requires more money than what is left over a the end
of the month. It is more likely to be the first thing that comes out
of a paycheck rather than the last. And I have yet to meet the person
that, when imbibing, will partake of only one beer. Drinking here is
an activity with the motive to forget and escape everything and the
beer (or wine, or moonshine) does not stop flowing until the drinker
in passed out.
No comments:
Post a Comment