A meal costs 60 times more in Haiti than in New York, the World Food Programme says

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was: No way! this is impossible because a Big Mac at a McDonald's in New York costs USD $3.99 but you can buy a plate of spaghetti in Haiti for 75 gourdes (about USD $1.17).

Wrong... If that's how you are looking at it, you're wrong.

The true cost of a plate of food that the World Food Program is talking about is not how much you pay for the food, it's rather how much of what you earn for the day that goes towards the price of the meal.

The minimum wage in New York as of December 2016 was $10.50/hr. That means, an employe working an 8-hour shift earns USD $84.00 for the day.

How much of that goes toward the price of a Big Mac?

The minimum wage in Haiti is between 175 and 350 gourdes for 8 hours of work.

How much of that goes toward the price of a plate of spaghetti?

World Food Program estimates 35% of the average daily income of a Haitian working man is needed to buy a plate of food while someone living in New York could spend only 0.6% of his daily income to cook a simple bean stew.

And you though life in Haiti was cheap!

Go figure!!!

What do you think about that?

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