You might expect me to say how rich and privileged I feel amid the scenes of poverty, I don't. Something feels a bit odd here; each day I am spending four times what a typical salaried Indian might earn, but I can't afford to eat where the middle class eat. I can't afford to stay in the hotels the middle class choose. I can't afford to buy the cameras the middle class buy. In the big electronics stores I'm looking at the budget models. This is clearly an exaggerated comparison, I have to eat out for every meal, I live in a hotel it's not a luxury, and I don't invest such a fraction of my wealth in purchases. But the contrast feels very real, I can walk into a shop and buy a camera worth five months wages for a junior shop assistant, or perhaps 2 months at the shop I am in, and feel I'm spending an obscene amount of money. But the next minute at a tourist spot which is visited by Indian tourists I will have one of the cheapest cameras on display. It's not even an SLR. The government employees I met in Andhra Pradesh on very moderate salaries (government standard level Rs10,000 per month, 100 GBP per month) saved to buy SLR cameras.
I'm trying to connect this to the UK in my mind, why is the apparent difference so great. It's hard to match up the figures due to inflation and multiple sources, so ignore anything but rough orders of magnitude. Thinking only of relative pay, as adjusted purchasing power and internationally priced goods are an unthinkable headache. The minimum wage at 40 hours per week would yield around 12,500GBP. From fairly recent data, 90% of the UK population might earn below 50,500GBP before tax. After taxation is applied with the almost progressive increases in tax-free allowance under the conned libs, the 4 fold difference reduces to perhaps 3 fold. If 99% earn under 160,000GBP before tax, after applying taxes (assuming they are paid...) the difference is still only around 8-fold. Of course there is currently a significant problem with unemployment, and the top 1% are ignored, but this ratio, lets call it a 3 to 10 fold difference, is a benchmark.
What about India. The bottom 25% of all people live on under 100GBP per year, but this isn't even a salary. The average living is around 800GBP per year. This means that even someone on a standard income is 8 fold ahead of the poorest 25%. A foreign educated university lecturer, mid level government employee, call center worker (here it pays) or skilled professional (electronics) could be making 3,600GBP per year, 36 times the poorest 25%. A high value electronic engineer or someone with a good position, the figure reaches up to 60-100 times the poorest. The minimum salary for a foreigner on a working VISA is 150 times the earnings of the poorest 25%. According to the government, the top 1% here are earning 20,000GBP per year, or 200 times the income of the poorest. This comparison isn't exact, there are far too many non-comparable numbers. The unemployed of India have been compared against the employed of Europe as a baseline. But approximately, the 10 fold income gap of the UK here becomes a 30-200 fold gap. Even using the 800GBP salary as a baseline for India over 1% of people earn 25 times this.
Apparently there is a measure called the 'Gini coefficient' which measures income inequality. By this measure India is more equal than the UK... it doesn't have my trust. I know I'm just another clueless tourist harping on about poverty, I'm just playing poor. Travelling for two years without working is a luxury some people I have met can't quite comprehend. But looking at the income inequality... it doesn't feel right. I'm not going to jump to a socialist conclusion, India's population is still growing fast... I'm not going to touch that one.
I'm trying to connect this to the UK in my mind, why is the apparent difference so great. It's hard to match up the figures due to inflation and multiple sources, so ignore anything but rough orders of magnitude. Thinking only of relative pay, as adjusted purchasing power and internationally priced goods are an unthinkable headache. The minimum wage at 40 hours per week would yield around 12,500GBP. From fairly recent data, 90% of the UK population might earn below 50,500GBP before tax. After taxation is applied with the almost progressive increases in tax-free allowance under the conned libs, the 4 fold difference reduces to perhaps 3 fold. If 99% earn under 160,000GBP before tax, after applying taxes (assuming they are paid...) the difference is still only around 8-fold. Of course there is currently a significant problem with unemployment, and the top 1% are ignored, but this ratio, lets call it a 3 to 10 fold difference, is a benchmark.
What about India. The bottom 25% of all people live on under 100GBP per year, but this isn't even a salary. The average living is around 800GBP per year. This means that even someone on a standard income is 8 fold ahead of the poorest 25%. A foreign educated university lecturer, mid level government employee, call center worker (here it pays) or skilled professional (electronics) could be making 3,600GBP per year, 36 times the poorest 25%. A high value electronic engineer or someone with a good position, the figure reaches up to 60-100 times the poorest. The minimum salary for a foreigner on a working VISA is 150 times the earnings of the poorest 25%. According to the government, the top 1% here are earning 20,000GBP per year, or 200 times the income of the poorest. This comparison isn't exact, there are far too many non-comparable numbers. The unemployed of India have been compared against the employed of Europe as a baseline. But approximately, the 10 fold income gap of the UK here becomes a 30-200 fold gap. Even using the 800GBP salary as a baseline for India over 1% of people earn 25 times this.
Apparently there is a measure called the 'Gini coefficient' which measures income inequality. By this measure India is more equal than the UK... it doesn't have my trust. I know I'm just another clueless tourist harping on about poverty, I'm just playing poor. Travelling for two years without working is a luxury some people I have met can't quite comprehend. But looking at the income inequality... it doesn't feel right. I'm not going to jump to a socialist conclusion, India's population is still growing fast... I'm not going to touch that one.
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