Comments on: That’s Some Pretty Expensive Shampoo…Wait, What?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:50:00 +0000

I love how youre all so good at making yourselves feel better about actively encouraging classism. Of course, Eloise wouldnt have a job if you didnt employ her, but that is just the rich person’s Prozac to help them sleep at night. Of course, if Nike didnt pay the 16 year old Indonesian girl 50 cents a day she wouldnt have a job, but she might have incentive to go and educate herself and work towards closing the gap between the classes. That will never happen in Latin America unless there are no opportunities for creating those subservient roles, so good on you everyone for being hypocritical about criticising the classism of Chile, Mexico etc and then paying someone a crappy wage (you know its true, even if you are ridiculously overpaying them) and encouraging their subservience. You should all know better.

By: TaraRae

TaraRae — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:19:00 +0000

wow. I never realized this. Other cultures are way different then the US. I knew that but I didn’t realize the inflation of prices were so dramatic. wow.

By: TD

TD — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:47:00 +0000

hey im all for if you can afford it then get it!

By: Lisa B.

Lisa B. — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:56:00 +0000

I think maybe you assume you enjoy your work more than Eloisa enjoys hers because you think cleaning up after someone else is automatically either unpleasant or degrading. Maybe Eloisa doesn’t see her work that way–maybe she takes pride in what she does … she probably just wishes she made more money at it (enough to have her own nana, perhaps.)

Maybe instead of feeling guilty, you should just resolve to always be courteous and respectful to Eloisa, but never patronizing, and always pay her fairly.

I wish I could have a nana … but then I’d feel guilty, too

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:51:00 +0000

Oh I feel your conflict! On the one hand, Rodolfo is amazingly non-macho and has no problem doing most of the tidying since he’s at home more, but on the other hand we still have to do a more intensive cleaning every couple weeks, and it just takes up precious weekend time together. That said, I still can’t quite bring myself to pay someone to clean my 36 m2 of apt…I feel like a real nana would just laugh at me for needing help with such a small space! I think if/when we move somewhere larger I’ll rethink it , because it really is just such a help that makes sense to have if you can (especially when the pollution settles like fine ash over EVERYTHING and is impossible for me to ever get completely clean), although my North American guilt does kick in a bit at the thought of being so lazy. But hey, when in Chile…

On a different note, yes, we must hang out, but right now my friend is here from the US so I’m playing tour guide with her. And then next week another friend is here. But after that, ie. second week in April, let’s make definite plans! Drinks one night with our men? Or a more extensive gringa get together? We’ll figure something out. PS. I read Styledash every day now and want to go shopping.