I recently incurred some interesting phone bills, probably as a result of not realizing that in this day and age it is still incredibly expensive to make long (long) distance phone calls. In my hurry to pay the bill online, I saw large amounts of imaginary money leave my account. When I finished I didn’t quite feel that I fully understood the actual cost of the calls, so I decided to make some calculations which would compare it to things that I can buy here in St. Kitts. Here we go.
Instead of spending time on the phone, I could have instead purchased:
-150 fried chicken lunches (with fries)
-300 bottles of beer at the bar
-180 pounds of ground beef
-750 litres of clean drinking water
-3 round trip tickets to the next closest island
-180 fresh pineapples
-112 tofu burgers
-45,000 grams of cheddar cheese
And last but not least, 3,800 long distance minutes on Skype
Lessons learned come hot and heavy in St. Kitts.
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Haha, high international phone prices was something I experienced the dangers of when moving to Canada with a long-distance girlfriend in another country. Its completly immoral, you could put those money into proper aid program and feed starving children chicken lunches and beer for a good while. I like your breakdown of typical western consumerist tendencies. And hey, tofu burgers are the shit.
ReplyDelete.Magnus
Jokes!!! I know here its cost about 0.33 euros per minute to take to Canada. i loved the 150 fried chicken lunches.
ReplyDeleteBest post ever.
ReplyDeleteone phone call home to momma, priceless.
ReplyDeleteI FEEL YOUR FRUSTRATION!!I seem to be spending more money on calling than anything else! 45000g of cheddar cheese.. LOL. Thats a lot of cheese
ReplyDeleteI'll take chicken for 150, alex
ReplyDeleteI spent last summer in Guatemala and within 1 month my phone bill was $1090.09. I swear I had that number burned into my brain. Never again!!
ReplyDeleteI now have the travelcuts SIM card. Free incoming :)