Talk:Curry Gardens

Wondering how far the prices quoted in the text could be used to build a sort of "cost of living index" for everyday life in Ankh-Morpork.

If the starting salary for a Watchman is $30 a month, we can assume this is a dollar a day.

Somebody on a £200 a week takehome pay in Britain is effectively earning £40 a day. (Let's assume £40 sterling equals $AM1)

A curry and rice meal from my local takeaway is around £5. This equates to the 10-15 AM pence quoted in the text.

£5 = 12.5% of that £40 daily pay.

The "mean" value between 10p (un-named meat curry) and 15p (curry with named meat) is 12.5 pence.

So the watchman going to the Curry Gardens for a takeaway at the end of a shift is also paying, on average, 12.5% of his daily pay on that basic curry and rice meal... (unless he's Fred Colon and scrounging it for free}

I wonder how far other comparisons of this sort would work out? --AgProv 21:31, 12 June 2007 (CEST)

Hmm, as the new book Making Money deals with the finance and economics of Ankh-Morpork, it might be interesting to expand this discussion on the everyday economics of life in A-M and see if it all fits together. I suspect it will, in some surprising ways that TP never consciously intended. Look at the way the Mappe of A-M came together without any need to rewrite the books, as if on some level it was already there, and just needed to be drawn up...--AgProv 01:19, 28 September 2007 (CEST)

The "general headings" for most peoples' expenditure, post tax and deductions

might be:-

*Rent/accomodation (including "utilities" - cost of staying warm and lit indoors). Generally rent - not much of a mortgage market in A-M?

• Food: how do people eat? We've already done a comparison on the cost of a takeaway and found it costs roughly the same proportion of daily pay in Ankh-Morpork as in Manchester. But food bought in and cooked at home?

• Clothing: historically, clothing was always more expensive in previous centuries, viewed as a higher proportion of one's weekly income. The individual would own less clothes but pay more for them.

In Mort, the cost of a bespoke, haute couture, ballgown is given as $AM 300-500. This is hardly representative: in The Truth, Sacharissa Cripslock considered $AM40 was at the top end of her budget.

In Men at Arms, we learn of the Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice: a really good pair of boots might be bought for $AM50. However, on a watchman's pay, even an officer's, he might struggle to get a "cheap" pair for $AM10....

• Necessary bills: no state schools - therefore school fees for all children.
• Contingencies: I'm assuming there is neither an NHS nor a welfare state in Ankh-Morpork. This heading might cover doctors' bills/general medical, dental (such as it is)

In Men at Arms, the cost of a month's education at the Spiteful Sisters of Seven-Handed Sek Charity School is given as $AM 7.00. Therefore yearly fees at a typical school - ie, one accessible to ordinary people - might be no more than $AM 84 per year.

• Entertainment - what do you do with your free time?
• Savings? Or would saving in a "funeral club" count as a deduction prior to recieving bulk residue of pay?

A box at the opera is $AM50 per performance.

Entry to the Odium to watch Moving Pictures cost 5p, later increased to 10p. On a par with the music hall?

Just need to extract examples of given costs from the books and see if they stck up.