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Comment by jeez | Hacker News Reader

Thought this might be relevant. There was a recent discussion on freelance job rates and the OP was worried that bids for US$10 per hour by people from India (etc) will make it hard for him to make higher bids.

Consider this. Working at $13 an hour, it equates to ~Rs.650. 650 * 25(days of working in a month) * 12 = Rs1,95,000 per annum, for working an hour a day. If I managed 3 hours of work at that 'cheap' rate, I'd be one of the highest earning person among my friends [who have all graduated in CS and work in various IT companies.] Pretty awesome to have a cheap economy, right? :)

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Speaking of the cheap economy, how does it effect things like consumer electronics? Would you expect to pay $1,500 USD on a MacBook pro, or is stuff like that also cheaper in India?

Apple prices are on an average 10% higher. Most electronic devices are more or less priced higher than, if not equivalent to the US prices.

Maybe mobile phones are less expensive here.

If I remember correctly a MacBook in Bangalore cost about the same as it did in Stockholm.

MRP Rs. 60,900/- Indian Rupee (about US$ 1350) http://www.priceindia.in/laptop/apple-macbook-price/

Apple Store US for the same seems to be about US$1200.

You are confusing Macbook and Macbook Pro. Macbook Pro is 70k rupees or 1560 USD, which means 360 dollars more than the US. Also at this price, it is more than 1.5 months salary for me, and I earn above average for my level. So purchasing power parity wise, its much more expensive.

not sure about mac, but other laptops are costlier in India. But Dell is definitely cheaper in the US. :( Conversion rate is about 1USD=50Rs. About 5-10% cheaper in the US. US: http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops#facets=51795~0~11401827,135... India: http://www.dell.com/in/p/laptops.aspx?c=in&l=en&s=dh... We do have our fair share of Chinese duplicate electronics. :) The rates are higher because most of the original stuff is also made in china. Import duty is pretty bad here. [50% import taxes on alcohol.]

>Pretty awesome to have a cheap economy, right?

No, it's terrible. First of all you're not mobile. Most any other country you'd like to vacation in is going to appear insanely expensive. Second of all, more and more products are (for lack of a better term) "internationally priced". A Macbook Pro won't cost you much less than it costs me.

I'd much rather live in an expensive place. Then I can vacation anywhere I want because everywhere else is so cheap.

Like pointed out earlier, bad economic policies are making the rich richer and poor poorer. Most of us IT folks are pretty much at the top in terms of income. So yeah, while bad on a national level, I meant it's a pretty good place for IT professionals.

Why do you think 'Bangalore' became a verb?

In most non-managerial posts, even if you paid me half the equivalent of what you get in the US, i'd still be living a comparable life here. That's what I meant by cheap economy.

If I got $1000 from RA/TA(etc) a month in a US grad school, I'd be making more (face value) money than professionals with 4-5 years of experience here. But I can do way more with that money here. I'm spewing out gibberish, but I hope you get my idea. :\

>Most of us IT folks are pretty much at the top in terms of income.

In the top of our economies. But take your high paying Indian position and then plan a vacation to Switzerland. You're not going to feel like the top anymore. I, however, could have a mansion in India easy enough (and know a lot of Indians doing exactly that; working in Switzerland and paying for wonderful mansions in India).

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