i've been wondering... people are talking about cheap item there, cheap item here, expensive there, expensive here etc, here some of scenarios:
1) new digital slr line is coming out!... under $1K price tag!
2) the rigol is cheap value for money! just $400!
3) that or this dev board is expensive $500
4) etc etc, its cheap! just $100! the DMM! or whatever!
what i'm talking about is the price compared to your monthly/or daily income or... our
local buying power. you see, here in our country, our standard or normal income for a postgraduate (Bsc) job is around MYR 1800-2500 (malaysian ringgit/dollar) for the beginning, when you got more experience, it can go up to something like MYR 3K++ to 10K++ (again our currency) depending on what type of company you are in. so for a beginner's salary at MYR 2000, buying a low end DSLR ($1K = MYR 3500) is a 1 month and a half worth of salary!
this thing come back into my mind when i'm ordering some PCB soldering equipments days ago (flux, remover, low melt solder etc) from Zephyrtronics
http://www.zeph.com. the total quote is USD190++. maybe for you, it is not much. well, if its in our currency, the 190 is not really much. but it is actually a MYR 665 in our currency (including shipping), quite expensive for me... for just several bottles of flux with accessories! attached picture is the items i'm ordering.
so here i'm asking friends from around the globe to show whats the
buying power in your country. i'm going to start with the "normal" monthly salary and the price of several items in our country... in our currency. "normal" i mean is the usually or mostly given salary for a normal Bsc job based on your preferences. please indicate the price for those items in
your own currency, dont convert it to other country's currency, esp USD as usually people quoting at. here is the list for our country.
1) "Normal" Engineer's Salary = MYR 1800-4000 (beginning to intermediate experienced engineers)
2) Rigol DS1052E = MYR 1300
3) Fluke 87-V DMM = MYR 1900
4) Canon EOS 5D Mark II Body = MYR 7200
5) PIC16F690 mcu (1 unit) = MYR 12
6) atTiny13a mcu (1 unit) = MYR 1-2
7) a tin of 325ml coca cola = MYR 1.50
so i hope you frens can give me/us some clue about your country's prices and
buying power, thanks.
Sincerely,
Shafri, Malaysia.