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Comment by Seanambers | Hacker News Reader

In India they optimize for maximum employment. It's the only place I've seen 7 people needed to refill a soda vending machine.

Once I ordered some drinks brought up to my hotel room around 10 in the evening. It took forever - turned out the guy who made the drinks was sent home for the day. So the hotel called him back and had him return just so he could come and make the drinks and bring them to my room. Because that was his job - nobody elses.

This was at a five star hotel in Amritsar.

Our driver slept in the car outside the hotel and was on call 24/7 for our entire stay.

Quite different from western countries for sure.

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I'm not sure that is maximizing employment as much as it is taking advantage of labor that is too cheap to meter.

Weird question: Did you feel embarassed when you learned driver was sleeping in the car? I would be. You: Sleeping in a 5 star. Them: In an uncomfortable car seat. When I traveled to Seam Reap, Cambodia, I was constantly embarassed when my driver did not come to eat with me. It was a weird, unpleasant peasant-ruler divide that I did not enjoy.

Unfortunately, in rich countries, the peasant-ruler divide is just abstracted away and out of sight, often internationally.

Honestly this kind of stuff is why I don’t travel to such places. Im sure they’re beautiful and whatever but I’d rather go spend time in an advanced country like Japan. The constant guilt tripping is not fun.

I was attending a wedding and everything was arranged for me so i just 'arrived' as a white westerener. Yes it was strange, and it exposed me to something I had never before experienced or imagined. Wherever I went they would yell 'gora' meaning white man. Some even wanted to take my picture.

However, Amritsar is famous for the golden temple which is the the holiest of all Sikh shrines. They said it was most beautiful to view at night. So we went there late at night parking closeby , walking there there we passed by the rickshaw drivers sleeping in their rickshaws as far as i could gather they had no other place to sleep. So they had it even worse.

Not to mention the child beggars of New delhi or the makeshift camps you saw driving along the highway.

All of this was approx 10 years ago.

It for sure opened my eye to the destitute and poverty.

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