The Sweet Side of the Soap Box

If I haven't complained enough about the inequity of pricing in written form, I made up for it in verbal complaints. I'm sure Kady would vouch for this.

I am a girl who values the dollar and won't spend it where she doesn't see fit. Don't get me wrong; I'll spend a lot of those dollars on something someone else wouldn't. But that's my right. AS AN AMERICAN.

I don't think it's the assumption that I have lots of money that bothers me. Don't get me wrong- compared to a Malaysian rickshaw driver, I have lots of money. But pay his bills with his wages, then pay my bills with my wages and then take a look at the percentage of wages left. I doubt there is an enormous discrepancy. At least not enough to justify 150-500% markups on services or retail. When I can afford it, I'll pay 50% more for a bus ticket. When that bus is at least 50% better than the one they're taking. But if I'm on a stinky bus with screaming babies and chickens that breaks down every hour and a half, I want to have paid the same as all of the other passengers.

Our missionary friend in Cambodia said they call this-the inevitably higher pricetag- "Skin tax".

Well, enough of my soapbox:

Kady and I discovered something magical in Kuala Lumpur. A way to make skin tax work in your favor. We embraced our white-ness, our Western-ness, perhaps even our American-ness and we waltzed into the fanciest department stores we'd ever been in and we touched the bags and garments.

And then, I tried on a pair of $1200 Jimmy Choos.

Do you know how people would have looked at us if we tried this in the states or Europe? Have you ever seen "utter disdain" on a shopgirl's face?

The truth is, Kady could have afforded hers; mine cost more than my plane tickets...