Coping with Crisis

In recent weeks, I've done some research on the differences between life in Asia and life in "these United States." Here's one  horrifying statistic: 45 million Americans are now receiving food stamps. About 1/3rd of the U.S. population is now receiving government assistance of some kind -- that's 100 million people. At the same time, prices in Asia average about 1/3rd that of the US. How can people afford to live in the US any more when prices have become so ludicrous? And income has remained the same or jobs have disappeared entirely? What can be done about it?

Numbeo.com compares cost-of-living. The closest city to me is Penang, Malaysia. I think of New York City as "home." Compare the prices:

	Penang	New York
Restaurants			Difference
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant	3.48 $	15.01 $	+331.18 %
Meal for 2, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course	16.88 $	73.00 $	+332.35 %
Combo Meal at McDonalds or Similar	3.67 $	6.75 $	+83.94 %

There are a few out there doing something to help those Americans who suddenly, dismayingly, find themselves empoverished. Just watched a CNN Hero, Sal Dimicelli, who voluntarily helps his neighbors in Wisconsin (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/07/29/cnnheroes.dimiceli.qa/index.html?iref=obinsite). The couple seen in the video is as American as apple pie. They are hard-working but also fun-loving, and they wear their years on their faces -- faces which now are even more drawn and wrinkled by the sudden realization that they are down to their last pennies with no job prospects on the horizon. Sal comes to their door bringing some hope.

I know these people. Like most Americans, they seem reasonably intelligent but poorly educated; they live in a house crowded with couches, comfortable chairs, stoves, TV, running water, hot showers, electricity, and probably an assortment of "chatchkas" -- Hummel figurines and Barbie dolls. These are people who show up for work, do an okay job, work hard but not obsessively. They do not aspire to much more than what they consider a simple life -- a life which has increasingly been defined by the "name brands." They enjoy their Bud beer and Marlboro cigarettes, a steak at Sizzler or burger at Mickey D's, get their clothes at K-Mart, their appliances at Wal-Mart, their shoes at Payless. In the US, so many Americans continue to overeat -- doctors claim there is rampant obesity in the US, and consequentially, epidemic diabetes and heart attacks linked to overweight, killing thousands each year. The couple in the video are not emaciated though not fat.

When you live in a "spoon fed" society, do you lose your ability to self-initiate? It seems that many Americans do not have the training or the personal resources to figure out what to do in times of crisis. They are trying everything they can think of to survive -- in the video, the wife reports she sold her wedding ring and is deeply when touched when Sal returns the ring. He had convinced the jeweler who bought it to give it back to her.

Why are Americans having so much trouble coping? Where is the old "pioneer spirit?" Or the determination that our parents and grandparents had to survive the Depression and the World Wars? Have we become so spoiled by propaganda and the previous decades of excess that we simply do not know what to do when jobs and money are scarce. The contrasts with the lives of Asians, especially those of the educated middle classes and poor, are startling.

To me, a big problem is the assumptions that Americans make about what life should be like and what business and society tell us are standard. For the last 6 years in Asia, I have lived without an oven. Before I came here, I had never seen a kitchen that was not equipped with a 4-burner stovetop with oven below. I miss baking and roasting but I have been forced to learn ways to cook decent meals on a propane gas stove similar to what campers in the US use outdoors (cost of the stove here in Malaysia = 35 ringgit = $10 USD).

I had never seen a hot water heater for a sink or shower before I first visited Asia. As a child in the 50's, I remember my mother's washing machine would require several steps; it was never until I visited Japan that I had ever had to deal with a cold water wash or moving the laundry to a spinner to wring out the soap, and then a second time to rinse.Why or how has it happened that Americans assume that all kitchens have stoves with ovens, all laundry and dishes must be washed in machines using hot water, and all clothes must dry in energy-eating hot air dryers? There are other alternatives.

Front door of the Jungle House

Last week, I spent some time on an island in Thailand where a British friend has designed his own little house in the jungle. Long previous experience in Asia and a lot of research went into the design. He used tropical trees cut down to make room for the house; hand-axed by local workers, they became the support beams for the house -- reported cost under $35 for the house beams. Stained a dark brown against the white sheathing, they give an English Tudor effect. For the floors, he got extra large white tiles to cover a poured cement floor -- both cooling and easily cleaned. The bathroom and kitchen areas are simply roofed with a semi-translucent plastic. Yes, when cocoanuts fall on them, there's a loud noise but otherwise they serve well to keep insects and rain out while letting light in.

Jungle kitchen

For about two days, when my prepaid mobile phone ran out of money, I was alone in the jungle without a way to call anyone if I had needed help. No phone, no internet access, no TV, no air con, no transportation (my friend's motorcycle broke down so he had mine). Water was collected in tanks from the mountains to supply the local village; the pipes into the house would clog up with leaves. I boiled water for hours in the little electric hot pot.

Beautiful jungle garden --
with  creatures hiding in the bushes

Outside,I was surrounded -- in the bushes live a nest of king cobras, a swarm of scorpions, a flock of very handsome chickens. Luckily, just outside the front door, lives a pack of very protective dogs and cats who appreciated my feeding them. Inside, I was in a reasonably safe, secure, clean and pretty place -- a comfort in the sudden torrential rains. With the help of some good books, time passed pleasantly. Now back home in Malaysia, I am more grateful than ever for the luxuries that surround me -- cable TV, broadband, aircon -- but also with a greater appreciation for how little it takes to survive and how wasteful modern life is getting to be.

It reminded me very much of when I used to live in a little 2-room cottage in northwest Connecticut. Water for the house came from an artesian well which failed every time the electricity blinked off. Winter months I spent hours filling in unsuspected holes in the wall with plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and whatever else I could find. Windows were sealed first with plastic wrap, then covered with blankets. Living there, life held daily lessons in self-reliance and necessity as the "mother of invention." This has stood me in good stead as I struggle to stay ahead of the financial game and am faced with more tests of my tolerance for Asian conditions.

Those experiences that test our ingenuity also teach. For me, the answer to living a 'low-income life' became obvious: leave the US.  I have a little regular monthly income -- and dollars go so much further here in Asia. From what other expats I have met here have said, there's an increasing exodus from the West -- people are moving to Asia because they can't afford to stay at home.


Indexes Difference
  Consumer Prices in New York, NY are 79.11% higher than in Penang
  Consumer Prices Including Rent in New York, NY are 142.17% higher than in Penang  
  Rent Prices in New York, NY are 420.04% higher than in Penang  
  Restaurant Prices in New York, NY are 248.82% higher than in Penang  
  Groceries Prices in New York, NY are 57.83% higher than in Penang    
  Local Purchasing Power in New York, NY is 10.11% higher than in Penang











Copyright 2011, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)