Malls Malls Malls

Let's not even discuss malls here. You guys- I have visited about five malls here, and literally, I have not bought a single thing because they were too expensive, and my family earns in dollars. What is the logic? 

In all of my history and sociology books, American society is criticized for it great division between wealthy and poor. However, it is nothing like the division between the rich and poor in Pakistan. 

I was reading an article which described how the affluent in American Society are physically separated from the rest. I cannot seem to find the article currently but it mentioned how a rich baby is born in an expensive hospital, goes to a private and extremely expensive daycare, and then a private elementary, middle and high. And in college, even though people of all monetary classes are accepted, the affluent have their separate clubs which only certain people can join. And lets not forget debutante balls to ensure the wealth remains in the hand of a few. 

However, here in Pakistan, things are even more separated. The defense area in a city is the most expensive place to live generally, and one of my friends was telling me that often people, particularly teenagers from defense, have not even been outside of defense their entire lives. They attend school there, and shop there, and eat there, and marry there. At least in the US, people of every class can go to the same malls and still find things that they can afford. Malls in Pakistan are only affordable to the extremely wealthy, where not even one store is "cheap." I know that from experience. 

Just to share from experience. A t-shirt that I saw in an affordable place cost about 250 rupees, while a shirt  that I saw in a mall was 5200. The expensive shirt cost 20 times more than the affordable shirt. 

Another shocking spending was with food. Eight of us went to eat in a relatively good place to eat, and our bill was 1065. And in an expensive place, where two of us ate, the bill was 3600. Woah!!!! The cost per person in the affordable place was 133 while the cost per person in the expensive place was 1800, about 13 times more. Would it be lame if I inserted another "woah" here? 

A somewhat completely random note: unfortunately, gold and silver costs about the same internationally. Considering that Pakistanis earn a third of Americans, purchasing gold must be an extravagant affair!