Russian Con or Zany Humanitarian?!
Thursday, August 27th, 2009I opened up my mailbox to find this sweet piece of mail in my “Junk or Safe” section!
At first I have to admit that I thought it was hilarious, but then the globally aware side of me kicked-in and I realized how telling this is of the economic disparity that exists between the U.S. and many other countries.
In Russia, this might be an alright deal as the average daily income in Russia for 2008 was $32 (1). Crazy to think that if one worked 8 hours a day at minimum wage in the U.S., that would be $58, about 45% more per hour.
SO, that got me to think’n, “Is this junk mail from an actual Russian con, or is it some zany and brilliant underground campaign from a humanitarian group to raise awareness about the income disparities that remain despite the current economy in the U.S.?” I’ll never know, but I’m kind of flattered to think this might have been from Brad Pitt or Bono. Awesome.
(1). $32 number came from dividing monthly income ($640) that was found on Wikipedia by 20 working days per month.