Are Goods Expensive in America?

 A while ago, on November 20^st of 2010, I had an interesting discussion with some of my fellow Indian-American(mostly Telugu) friends. In those days, we would meet at Shaun Udall Park in Tucson on every Saturday, just to socialize. One of the main attractions, for men and children on these meets was, playing Volleyball. Of course, these weekly meets have now stopped because of lack of interest among the community.

On one such Saturday, we had to buy a volleyball from Wal-mart for a price of eighteen dollars. One gentleman looked at the ball’s nametag, and noticed that it was made in China. Then he started berating America’s pricing imbalance and wondered why American goods are so expensive that we all have to buy stuff that’s made in China. Though I didn’t say anything to him at that time, here are my thoughts in this regard.

In America, the person who made this volleyball, makes a living that is very much comparable to the person who bought it in the store, as well as the salesman who sold the ball, and his store manager. Everybody has a car (some car), a place to live, and all the bare necessities. But in  a third world country (euphemism for a poor country) like India or China (some people may not agree with me that China is a third world country, but that is a discussion for another day), none of these people have comparable life-styles. The workers and salesmen live in slums, where living conditions are pathetic at best (read or watch City Of Joy or Slumdog Millionnaire), and the store manager lives in a rented dwelling where there is no running water, unreliable electric supply, and un-hygienic surroundings. No wonder American goods are expensive. But I thought we all migrated to US in order to improve our living standards. And I’m sure most of us earn much more than what we used to when we were back home. No?