Both Oars In Split Economies

Apr 30, 2010

We all live in two economies simultaneously: local and global. Those of us who live in the developed world, especially in the U.S. or Europe, may not be aware of the economic duality we navigate daily because the seam between the two is hidden by the size of our domestic economies, the relative strength of our wages, and the global power of our respective currencies. Yet, even a simple trip to the gas station for a tank gas and a Coke involves crossing from one economy to the other.  

In the poorer, developing world, the economic duality creates an overtly present “double reality.” Often, purchasing goods or services may even necessitate switching from local currency to a more global currency such as Dollar or Euro. Even if the transaction does not require an actual change in currency, the foreign mind is constantly tempted to calculate the cost of goods, especially those that are imported, in “home currency.” This keeps the dichotomy between the local and global economy in plain view; and sometimes the view isn’t too pretty.

Bouncing from a severely weak economy to the global market in order to make a purchase can involve a socioeconomic gut check. When you are faced with paying the equivalent of a local day’s hard labor wages for something as normal as a box of cereal, simply because it is imported, you tend to quickly localize your diet. But the impact of knowing just what it means to live in a weak economy still hits you in the gut before you can put the box back on the shelf.

I find myself most conscious of this duality when my family drags me into one of the few fast food establishments in Haiti for a respite from chicken, rice and beans. The menu boards in these joints, with their ripped off names for almost the same food, look like leftover props from the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. I am not kidding. Port au Prince’s most popular ex-pat hangout, Epidor, sells a knockoff Big Mac. Unfortunately, the only resemblance between a ‘MacEpi’ and the real deal is the price.

However, the culinary disappointment is not what bothers me the most about the MacEpi, nor is it the fact that it costs the equivalent of half the daily minimum wage—although that in itself is an eye catcher. What repulses me most is that the people behind the counter making the not-so-good-nearly-trademark-infringing burger do not even come close to making the kind of wages the burger’s first-world price suggests. This is made clear by their total disinterest in matching the speed of the service with the type of food they are serving.

Who can blame them for working slowly? Maybe it is an unconscious protest. Imagine how frustrating it would be to spend all day taking in money for food priced on a global market level only to walk home with a local market level paycheck. Somehow Haiti’s factories, which pay $5 a day to their workers and claim to have to struggle to compete with global competition for textile contracts, seem more defendable than the food establishments in the same country that charge $2 for a hamburger and still pay local wages. It is a wonder there aren’t more open displays of hostility than poor service.

Within minutes of entering one these U.S. rip-off fast food establishments, I start feeling hostile myself, driven by a mixed bag of wanting to liberate the counter help and an odd urge to defend Ronald’s intellectual property rights at the same time. It galls me that the owner takes advantage of producing in one economy and selling in another without any interest in taking the worker along for the ride. Judging from the quality of the food, these establishments are not that interested in the client either, so forget the special orders as well. 

My dislike for the situation hit a crescendo the other day when we stopped for a pizza. When it took an hour to get two pizzas, one made incorrectly, I asked for a first world economy solution - i.e. a free pizza for the mistake and wasted time. I was denied satisfaction right along with the hair-netted workers behind the counter, who I think should burn the pizzas until they get profit sharing. It seems that complaints are handled in local currency just like the pay. The fact that the pizza costs $10, or two days’ minimum wage, didn’t change a thing.