Cost of Eating in Ukraine!

[vielnick]

in Germany a kg of minced beef costs around 3,50-4,00 €, thus a little bit cheaper than in Ukraine, by different wages, I presume.I cycled this year through your country and was puzzled that in such a fertile land the people has to live in poorness.

[MichaelB_PL]

Originally Posted by vielnick

in Germany a kg of minced beef costs around 3,50-4,00 €, thus a little bit cheaper than in Ukraine, by different wages, I presume.I cycled this year through your country and was puzzled that in such a fertile land the people has to live in poorness.

1. Wealth and level of living of a country is heavily dependent on immaterial stuff like level of organisation, (lack of) corruption, work ethic, etc etc. And on one side we have Ukraine or Russia, which are poor below what one could guess from their natural factors. On the other we have countries like Finland, which are rich due to factors which have nothing to do with natural factors.

2. An important characteristic of poor countries like Ukraine is that not everybody is poor in them - they have less middle class, more people living in poverty and some people who are filthy rich. In essence, the "poor countries" have a stronger division between the rich and the poor, with less middle class between. And why is that? Apart from others factors, the rich steal from the poor.

[AkMike]

We had a very nice dinner at a local restraunt last night in Cherkassy Ukraine with 5 of us. A bottle of wine for the ladies, and 1/2 l. of Vodka for the men... Totaled 530 hyrivna. Very cheap by US standards.

[vielnick]

Michael:"some people who are filthy rich. "
Are these of Ukrainian nationality and religion?

[Gotno Gizmo]

Originally Posted by vielnick

Michael:"some people who are filthy rich. "
Are these of Ukrainian nationality and religion?

I am a regular British visitor to the eastern Ukraine city of Lugansk. It is my observation that Ukraine has all the symptoms of a former Soviet state. A working class person earns considerably less than most western European workers. However many of these can survive reasonably well on lower salaries, as for the most part housing and related costs are generally much lower than those of the west. However, prudent food shopping is required as not locally produced foodstuffs are disproportianately expensive compared with income.

Suprisingly people like Doctors, who would be middle class and comfortably off in my country, do not command high salaries here and are not really classifiable as middle class. However, Dentists with their own private practice seem to do much better. I haven't had cause to meet Lawyers or other professionals so I can't comment on them. But clearly, there is no clearly defined "middle class" in Ukraine as there is in other countries like mine.

Now we come to the rich. I see more top of range very expensive motor cars daily in Lugansk than I do walking around English streets daily. These are usually parked adjacent to banks, plush restaurants, upmarket fashion shops and ladies hairdressing salons. I try to study the owners of the cars when I see them to compare them with the British "upper class". Their choice of fashion and demeanour suggests that they are what the French would call "nouveau riche". This means new money, not the less vulgar and more modest inherited wealth, usually accompanied with best school education and culture. The Ukrainian rich are often younger than expected, and often dressed in leather garments. It tends to remind me of the kind of people I would have associated as being a night club owner or property landlord when I was younger in England. As to the sources of their wealth, I can only imagine!

However, in summary in Ukraine, you either have plenty of money, or very little, with no noticable middle class in between. As for religion, what has that got to do with wealth creation?

[AkMike]

We had a nice dinner for 4 in Kyiv last week on Kreshatic,(city center) and the tab totaled 950 hyrivna for a comparable dinner that we had in Cherkassy. Kyiv is $pendy!!

[sharleenreyna]

In US cost for 2 dinners is around 60 to 70 dollars. And it sometimes will include a glass of wine or juice.I noticed one entry I think it was brisket on a menu that cost over 1200 grn or 240 US dollars. Granted you could find high priced cafes here but for normal dining this is 2 times the price in the United States and perhaps close to 3 times. We went bowling there and three of us did 2 sets each so it was 6 sets total. The cost was 195 grn or 40 dollars us. So if you take shoes off I would guess it was 5 dollars a set. Here it is a little more that half that. in Ukraine but their costs on these Items are much higher than in the US. Who is eating out there and doing these other activities and how are they able to do it.