I seem to recall a movie where some youngsters went to Eastern Europe and stayed at the best hotel for pocket change, due to vagaries of exchange rates and economies. The hotel staff were overjoyed at getting a nickel for a tip.
What movie was this? And are there really places in the world so overcome by poverty that one could live like a king (relatively speaking) for a modest sum?
grumbles Why’d you have to put this in GQ? I want to answer but it’s not a GQ question! But I’ll answer partly -
You can go to India and live like a king on a relatively small amount of money. It’s all in the exchange rate. One dollas is worth so many rupees it’s silly, and they jump to get tips in dollars there. Not quite for a nickel, but five American dollars goes a long way, and I imagine the pound even more so.
The closest match I could find on IMDb using the search “Eastern Europe travel” is Jarmark Europa (2004)
I agree, this sounds like a post for IMHO.
Quite often people can create the illusion of money and/or power. Look at people like Donald Trump. He’s been deeply in debt, and may still be, but he certainly seems to live like a billionaire. There are many examples, not only today, but throughout history.
On a more mundane level, lots of U.S. citizens retire to Mexico and other foreign countries because their incomes buy them a better lifestyle than they could command in the U.S.
The thread title and the questions in the OP are different, or so it seems to me. One of my co-workers used to take a long vacation in Mexico every year. He said he could live very comfortably in exotic surroundings for much less than he spent to live here in Indiana. When he retired, he said he planned to spend the rest of his life in Mexico, in the lap of luxury. (I’ll qualify that by telling you that he liked to spend half of every summer living in a tepee in a campground near here.) I don’t know how it worked out for him. I haven’t seen him in a long time.
Now, about the title. To me, “lord over other people” means to arrogantly order people around and assume you are superior to them. That’s more a question of having a toxic attitude than having money.
The movie was “EuroTrip.”
There are many places in the developing world where you can live very well if you have a modest income by developing world standards.
Panama is relatively high-income for Latin America, but the minimum weekly salary is $40. While I wouldn’t say you can “live like a king” here, since costs aren’t that much lower than in the US, a middle class income by US standards is still much higher than the vast majority of people get. In truly poor countries like Honduras you can live far above local standards for very little money by US standards.
Most Americans have absolutely no idea what the rest of the world is like.
Can’t help with the identity of the movie.
It isn’t the money factor as it is the attitude of those who want to exercise power over others that constitutes someone lording it over them.
There are plenty of poverty stiken areas. In some you might not be able to find much to buy regardless of the amount of money in your purse.
I have a very cocky and arrogant friend from Sri Lanka. Very well educated and makes a modest income, but is not rich. When asked why he dosen’t just go home and live like a king he replies “Having people as pets is not all its cracked up to be”.
I have another friend from the Phillipines. Well educated and making a very good income. He lives like he is in poverty and shops at thrift stores and yard sales for material goods to send back to his family. When he goes home they treat him with great respect but I am sure he does not “lord” it over them.
So send somebody in the thrid world your old shoes that you were going to throw out. they might just love you for it.
audiobottle got it.
I think maybe the phrase the OP may have been groping for was “live like a lord”, not “lord over other people”.
Cambodia. If you earn $100 per month you would live there like a king
Just out of curiosity, why? Wouldn’t sending money make about ten times more sense? Or are some of the things he sends not available in the Philippines?
David Spade allegedly joked at anyone who rode in a limo “Ooooh, look at me, I have eighty dollars.”
Eastern Europe is catching up with the rest of Europe fast, due to the high levels of British (and other) tourists going for weekends and stag-dos and the money being poured into it by the EU. Whilst places like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are still pretty cheap, you won’t be able to get a place in the best hotel for pocket change.
Although I am sure I am one of them, this statement has the ring of profound truth about it. I was taught in my youth that America and Americans were superior in every way to the rest of the world. It is to my unending regeret that I never ventured out to see for myself how other cultures operate.
You can live like a king in SE Asia, but you’ve gotta be a bit careful about it. Act like an arrogant “I’ve got DOLLARS so fuck you!” foreigner, and you’ll get what’s coming to you. Respect the locals as equals, and they’ll show you a good time.
I’ve seen both types of tourist, and the results seem consistent.
Oh my, do you actually think that these people have anything like a Walmart down the street? :dubious: You can have pockets full of cash and nothing to buy but fish and rice in a lot of places. OK that’s a little far fetched, but not too out there. People go without decent shoes because their are none in the stores and the locals will make them out of used tires and straps of leather. The old cloths that the Salvation Army can’t give away here get sent there for people to wear and for raw material stock to make local style cloths and goods.
Might I suggest that you try out the Peace Corps for a year and see how more than half of the world live. You live in a paradise dude and you don’t even realize it.
I think that’s a bit of a reach. We paid our Thai maid $100 per month, our part time cook about $75 a month, and our driver got about $200 per month. Cambodia is worse, but I can’t imagine it’s that much worse that $100 would pay all of your expenses and still afford you many of lives luxuries. Maybe $100 per month would allow you to live like Rodney King, but not like a monarch.
To extend some of Si Amigo’s points, even if things are available, they are much more expensive than in the US. It makes much more sense to buy them in the US and ship them than to buy them overseas - if you can somehow avoid the import duties.
I am a long-term resident of Panama, and visit the US a couple times of years. I do a lot of shopping on each visit.
As an example, one thing that is difficult to find here in Panama is moderately priced clothes of moderately-good quality. What’s available in the stores is either very cheap clothes of very poor quality; or very expensive clothes of luxury quality. There is not much in between, nothing like you would find at Wal-Mart or JC Penney’s. It’s easy to find a $3 shirt and a $60 shirt, but it’s tough to find an $18 shirt. If I tried to buy Levi-type jeans here, they would cost twice as much as in the US, and there would be almost no selection in terms of size or style.