TATY - about the *scandalous pricing system*.... (yes, I know you were halfway joking - but even so, there's something going on there that can be extremely frustrating for us poor foreigners...
)
I've noticed the same thing every so often, both
in Russia (hotel prices!!!
), and with Russian sellers outside Russia (f.ex. on eBay - yes, yes, I'm an addict, I confess...)
I can somehow understand their point of view: their average income is lower than ours, and they try to earn a bit more off people who have more. And fair enough - frustrating of course
, but fair enough, if you think about it.
Where it goes wrong, is may Russians' perception of
how rich we are (and maybe that's a leftover from their recent history? Propaganda - counterpropaganda - wild stories going around about 'the Rich West'? I remember a friend from Leningrad, 20 years ago - who was convinced that ALL Americans were rich, drove small sportscars (????!!!!
), and smoked cigars (???!!!). We couldn't convince him otherwise, for - as he said - he had seen proof of all that in (slightly illegal
) American glossy magazines like Vogue(!) and such (which his mum loved). I happened to have an arty-farty photobook about the Bronx, and when we showed him, he was so shocked that he didn't speak for hours. Which was a biiiiiiiig deal for him.
He now lives and works in Paris and Brussels, BTW, and his perspectives are normal now....
)
Let's, f.ex., say I earn twice what a Russian doing my job does (that should be about right, maybe a bit more, but not triple). But as their perception is, that all Westeners are dripping with money (after all, they see a lot of Western бизнесмеи and racketeers, you can't even blame them
), they don't double their prices for foreigners, but triple them - or multiply by four or five.....
Which makes me, a "rich westerner", a normal person where I live, but somewhat of a pauper when in Russia! Because I'm not so rich as the rich westerner they expect me to be.....
But all that is just MHO
..... any other thoughts are welcome
(interesting subject, TATY, tx for bringing it up!)