Why do you fear that a bookshelf costs less than a pizza? For me, it basically indicates that products, which you can stored and transport easily, are very cheap, while labor costs are expensive, because each worker could be extremely productive elsewhere.
Let me compare Ukraine and Denmark, two very similar countries with similar culture that differ by size, history and GDP/inh:
- Ukraine had communism and now a 10 times lower GDP per inhabitant.
- Ukraine has lots of policemen directing traffic. I haven't seen a policeman directing traffic in Denmark for years.
- In Ukraine, there may be more employees than customers in a shop. In Denmark, it can be hard to find an employee in a shop. Sometimes I find myself standing in a gas station shop, and there's nobody behind the counter, I just have to wait for the guy who operates the shop to get back from whereever he is.
- In Ukraine, each item from a buffet in a fast food restaurant is measured by employees, and price is calculated based on weight. In Denmark, you put a lot of different food on a plate and pay a standard price, in order to maximize customer/employee ratio.
- In Ukraine, there are repair shops for mobile phones, furniture, or even clothes (!). In Denmark, you can find perfectly ok laptops at garbage dumps (at least I discarded one myself this way).
- In Ukraine, it can be hard to find a place where they have a good color inkjet printer (believe me, it's really difficult), and original ink from hewlett packard is difficult to obtain. In Denmark, it's embarrassing to ask to borrow a printer, because you're wasting somebody else's time because you didn't plan to order ink - but everybody has color printers, because they cost less than the costs to drive to the shop.
- If a Ukrainian is offered a free bookshelf, he will try to figure out what to do with it. If a Dane is offered a free bookshelf, he will most likely ignore it because it's waste of time.
Why do you want USA to be like Ukraine? |
