The past several years of my life have been very educational. I would say that I have learned more about what is truly important in life simply by being alive outside of my own country than I did from 4 years of college - where by the way I did extremely well as a student.
I wasn't terribly impressed with my career opportunities after graduation so instead of jumping right into a job that I wasn't excited about in the first place, I decided to do this thing that Europeans do before going to college (so I'm told) and go on a "gap year." Of course this year became several years but a lot of that had to do with the Covid situation and not my own actions. To be honest I probably would have stayed even if all of that Covid crap hadn't happened anyway though, because I was really enjoying my life here in Thailand. I still am actually.
I learned a lot of things over the years here but one of the things directly ties to something that we heard a lot when I was studying Economics in college
Different societies have wildly different prices on goods and services
I never really complained about the cost of things when I had only lived in the United States for the first 23 years of my life and you know what they say about ignorance being bliss, well it truly is in some regards.
Before moving over to Asia I just presumed that all taxis or Ubers were going to cost an arm and a leg and seeing as how that was the same case everywhere else I had been in the United States I just kind of figured that this was the case everywhere.
It is not the case everywhere.
When I was in Chicago visiting a friend I was alarmed to find out that a taxi from the airport to his apartment cost me over $100. I wasn't happy about parting with $100 but that is just what it costs... right? That is not the case at all.
When I first arrived in Bangkok I was charged 500 Baht (around $16 or so) for the journey from the airport to my hotel and I thought this was a good deal. I would later find out that I had been ripped off and while I don't like being ripped off I wasn't really upset about it because it was so much less than I was accustomed to paying for the same thing back in my own country. I think the taxi drivers are aware of this and this is why they get away with it so easily. They do NOT get away with that with me now though, because I have been here a while.
For reasons that I cannot understand seeing as how cars cost the same here as they do in the west, and gasoline is a similar price as well, taxis are remarkably cheap in this country especially if you are using an app like Grab (which is similar to Uber.)
Now here in Chiang Mai I can basically go from one side of the city to another for $5 and it is far less than that if you are willing to sit on a taxi motorbike.
It's not just taxis though, it is everything else as well.
I have a two bedroom, two story, fully-furnished house that I live in and it costs me about $350 a month. You can't rent ANYTHING in USA for that much and it isn't going to come with furniture either. Things like a soda at a minimart cost so little that you don't even pay any attention to it. The last time I got a drink from a minimart it was less than 50 cents. The last time I visited the USA a 12oz diet Dr. Pepper was routinely over $3 a bottle.
So how does this happen? Well I can only guess that it is because of a lot of things but mostly because of labor costs and taxation. I believe the government here pushes the limits on how much they can tax as well but if food costs were as expensive here as they are in USA half of the population would starve. Well they would probably riot and take over the government long before they starved but you get the point.
Getting a take away meal that is really tasty is easily accomplished here in Chiang Mai as well as most other parts of SE Asia (not you Singapore!) for between 1 and 2 dollars. If that was ever possible in my life in USA I was too young to remember it.
According to a source I recently saw, the average price of a hot dog at a hot dog stand, which is kind of about as close as we come to "street food" in USA, is $2.50. I wouldn't consider a hot dog to be a meal either since after you eat it you probably need 2-3 more to feel full.
Everything from food to drinks to housing to energy costs are dramatically cheaper over here in South East Asia for the most part (again, not you Singapore,) and honestly, I really prefer it that way. It's not like the drinks in 7-11 are better in America. Some would say that they are worse because in the States we use high fructose corn syrup and they use sugar overseas. I have no idea why that is but that does seem to be the case.
When I see something like this happening on basically all products it leads me to believe that the industries and the government are kind of "out to get you" because they know how much the market can handle as far as prices are concerned and they charge right at that amount unless there is a promotion of some sort going on.
So for me, I hope to be able to stick to my goal of going back to the States to make some money for a decade or two and then stick to my plan to get the hell out of there as soon as I can. I know that I am going to be in for a bit of reverse culture shock the first time I go to get dinner in Texas and it ends up costing me what a week's worth of food costs here in Thailand.