NationStates Jolt Archive

Though I realize that many are in poverty, roaming the streets, and such in poorer countries I had assumed the middle class at least had electricity and running hot and cold water. I know middle class is different over there but following a similar pattern in relation to their standard of living.

My Indian friend told me that only the upper middle class can afford 24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, and refrigerators etc.

So is this a typical standard of living in these countries? Only the upper middle class, and wealthy can afford what an average or even poor American has? What are the numbers like, who can actually live a life on the standard of what an average American has (24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, central air conditioning, cable, and appliances)? Just the wealthy like the big business owners and industrialists in a town or city? Can anyone afford an average American car?

Though I realize that many are in poverty, roaming the streets, and such in poorer countries I had assumed the middle class at least had electricity and running hot and cold water. I know middle class is different over there but following a similar pattern in relation to their standard of living.

My Indian friend told me that only the upper middle class can afford 24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, and refrigerators etc.

So is this a typical standard of living in these countries? Only the upper middle class, and wealthy can afford what an average or even poor American has? What are the numbers like, who can actually live a life on the standard of what an average American has (24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, central air conditioning, cable, and appliances)? Just the wealthy like the big business owners and industrialists in a town or city? Can anyone afford an average American car?

Very true. Being below the poverty line in the U.S., and probably Western Europe, is still better than being middle or upper-middle class in much of the world. India, in particular, has problems with water purity and rationing, according to a recent Businessweek - they interviewed a woman who was basically upper-middle class who still had only two buckets of water for her personal use each day.

I consider our family to be middle class somewhat. Though we have 24-hr electricity, we don't have 24-hr air-conditioning. It's simply too expensive.

We do have running water, but it is from a well we dug ourselves and water is pumped. There are many areas where water comes only during 12mn-4am or twice in two weeks. I once lived in a slum where we have a manual pump to draw the somewhat dirty underground water and douse it with chlorine to make it clean for bathing.

But perhaps some of India's problems on electricity and water might also be cause partly by the destitute state of their utility systems. Some can afford 24-hr electricity but the utility can only provide electricity for 12 hours...

And, we have a fridge, but no hot or cold running water. If we want a hot bath, we boil water in a kettle. And we have no bathtub. (hot baths are unnecessary anyway, being in a tropical country, but the heat is crushing, especially during April-July)

We have a car, but it took us like two to three years of saving to buy one.

An average American would be a wealthy person here. Very wealthy.

Well.. Ive lived in India for 15 years, grew up there and still go there for atleast 3 months a year. There is a lot of poverty, but there is also a HUGE middle class.

Almost everyone I know has hot and cold running water, usually 24 hours a day of electricity unless there has been havy rain or something, the infrastructure is just bad.

The avarage person in a western country would have a brilliant standard of living in India. A small ammount of money would take you a lot further.

Though I realize that many are in poverty, roaming the streets, and such in poorer countries I had assumed the middle class at least had electricity and running hot and cold water. I know middle class is different over there but following a similar pattern in relation to their standard of living.

My Indian friend told me that only the upper middle class can afford 24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, and refrigerators etc.

So is this a typical standard of living in these countries? Only the upper middle class, and wealthy can afford what an average or even poor American has? What are the numbers like, who can actually live a life on the standard of what an average American has (24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, central air conditioning, cable, and appliances)?

Depends on where you live in India. There are places with decent infrastructure (by Indian standards) where even a lower middle class family can have the stuff you mentioned (minus the car, which is still a luxury item). Motorbikes are ubiquitous in such families. We had three in our household. Public transport can get you wherever you want to go, so you are not exactly handicapped if you don't have personal transport. Although we are now upper middle class, we still haven't bought a car because it is not needed where we live.

And there are places where there is a complete meltdown of infrastructure and utter chaos where you have to really rich to have a decent standard of living.

The cities are getting increasingly costlier to live now due to heavy influx of disposable income for working class people in certain booming sectors.

Just the wealthy like the big business owners and industrialists in a town or city? Can anyone afford an average American car?

Well, you can look at the sales volumes of cars for the past 5 years. There has been a tremendous increase in numbers....driven by the young working class professionals who can afford a car now.

I always find it strange how in poor countries you can get a good meal for a few pence yet in the U.K at least even McDonald's costs at least £2-3

course if I saved up all my life and went to India with my pension I could probably live like a very sweaty King

Though I realize that many are in poverty, roaming the streets, and such in poorer countries I had assumed the middle class at least had electricity and running hot and cold water. I know middle class is different over there but following a similar pattern in relation to their standard of living.

My Indian friend told me that only the upper middle class can afford 24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, and refrigerators etc.

So is this a typical standard of living in these countries? Only the upper middle class, and wealthy can afford what an average or even poor American has? What are the numbers like, who can actually live a life on the standard of what an average American has (24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, central air conditioning, cable, and appliances)? Just the wealthy like the big business owners and industrialists in a town or city? Can anyone afford an average American car?

Indian is in a big setback. They have this emerging economy, but they are on the verge of drying out their water supply. I read an article in the wall street journal,i believe, and it was saying that basically, in 10 years or so, the Indian gov't will have to import water for its citizens, and since its such a large population, it will require a lot of money- money that could have been used to build up their infrastructure and economy. If India doesn't fix this problem soon, no one, not even the really wealthy, will be able to live "comfortable".

I depends on where you live in India...My family is Punjabi, and the last time I went was when I was like 8...back in....97...We had electricity but it would go out for a few hours every once in a while...My cousins' had a house that could have been in North America...running water and everything and my family's house was a somewhat better off because we had kinda updated it with our money...not may cars, but a few scooters...there were water pumps, but I'm not sure if the other people had running water....don't remember that much after 10 years...

Indian is in a big setback. They have this emerging economy, but they are on the verge of drying out their water supply. I read an article in the wall street journal,i believe, and it was saying that basically, in 10 years or so, the Indian gov't will have to import water for its citizens, and since its such a large population, it will require a lot of money- money that could have been used to build up their infrastructure and economy. If India doesn't fix this problem soon, no one, not even the really wealthy, will be able to live "comfortable".

Most of it is due to infrastructure; India's water treatment and distribution infrastructure is still inadequate to handle the needs of their population, with the result being that significant quantities are either wasted or ruined beyond usability. That in turn puts pressure on the remaining good sources of water, making it a very serious situation indeed.

Also, inefficiency in agriculture worsens the problem by polluting and consuming more water than would be needed in a more efficient system; to make matters worse, yields are less despite higher water consumption, and so even more water has to be used to produce the same amount of crops.

Much of it is truye. Visiting family on India who have a farm there is a lot of rationing and such. t night an alarm would go off at the nearby factory to signal the shutdown of electricity, water needs to be boiled to safe to drink. Though it was difficult to get used to, was there for a total of 6 months, its not as hard as it seems and is quite rewarding. Though amenities such as electricity are rationed the lifestyle is so much more relaxed. Also a first class carriage and fry up on the train costs about a pound. A medical check up cost 50 pence.

Though I realize that many are in poverty, roaming the streets, and such in poorer countries I had assumed the middle class at least had electricity and running hot and cold water. I know middle class is different over there but following a similar pattern in relation to their standard of living.

My Indian friend told me that only the upper middle class can afford 24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, and refrigerators etc.

So is this a typical standard of living in these countries? Only the upper middle class, and wealthy can afford what an average or even poor American has? What are the numbers like, who can actually live a life on the standard of what an average American has (24/hr electricity, running hot and cold water, central air conditioning, cable, and appliances)? Just the wealthy like the big business owners and industrialists in a town or city? Can anyone afford an average American car?

I stayed with my grandparents there, and they had no car. My grand-uncle had a motor scooter, but that was it.

Interesting comments so far!

You really cannot compare completely different areas with a simple "average person makes X dollars".

Let me put it this way... I can easily afford to use as much electricity as I want, leave the hot water running, and run the air conditioner 24/7. Despite this, I will never be able to afford a servant. As Agatha Christie once said "I never expected to be so poor that I couldn’t afford a servant, or so rich that I could afford a motor car."

In India, it would be taken for granted that someone in my relative economic standing would have servants. In the US, it is taken for granted that I would have utilities running 24/7 (though I am getting annoyed with the cable company from the occasional internet outage - the tubes must get clogged now and then).

I always find it strange how in poor countries you can get a good meal for a few pence yet in the U.K at least even McDonald's costs at least £2-3

course if I saved up all my life and went to India with my pension I could probably live like a very sweaty King

Lots of people do exactly that. My dad's colleagues are all getting toward that age, retirement. Some have gone to Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. Cheap land, cheaper food and clothing. It's always an option.

You really cannot compare completely different areas with a simple "average person makes X dollars".

Let me put it this way... I can easily afford to use as much electricity as I want, leave the hot water running, and run the air conditioner 24/7. Despite this, I will never be able to afford a servant. As Agatha Christie once said "I never expected to be so poor that I couldn’t afford a servant, or so rich that I could afford a motor car."

In India, it would be taken for granted that someone in my relative economic standing would have servants. In the US, it is taken for granted that I would have utilities running 24/7 (though I am getting annoyed with the cable company from the occasional internet outage - the tubes must get clogged now and then).

Very true! There are still lots of parts of the world where you can afford a half dozen servants just by earning (U.S.) minimum wage, but probably not a car or an air-conditioner. I must say also that as an American, it was very strange visiting such countries - I'm uncomfortable having servants, or ordering people around in general, but they don't understand that attitude and end up mocking you if you don't do exactly that. Strange stuff.

You really cannot compare completely different areas with a simple "average person makes X dollars".

Let me put it this way... I can easily afford to use as much electricity as I want, leave the hot water running, and run the air conditioner 24/7. Despite this, I will never be able to afford a servant. As Agatha Christie once said "I never expected to be so poor that I couldn’t afford a servant, or so rich that I could afford a motor car."

In India, it would be taken for granted that someone in my relative economic standing would have servants. In the US, it is taken for granted that I would have utilities running 24/7 (though I am getting annoyed with the cable company from the occasional internet outage - the tubes must get clogged now and then).


That was always strange to me how they can afford to pay servants, and such. I always thought of going to a foreign country to have such but treating them well. Live like a king there :)