In Reply to: hand to mouth posted by Freogirl on Wednesday, 12. May 2010 at 20:58 Bali Time:
and of course there are wealthy Balinese/Indonesians in Bali as well Karangasam (sp?) has some grindingly poor areas eg. Munti.
Another point is that across Indonesia many islands are so stricken with poverty that to them Bali is well off. Many of the workers you come across in Bali who are from other islands would dearly love to live at home but there is simply no work.
I only found out on my last trip from a friend from West Timor that those who live all points west from Bali have to come to Bali. because Sanglah ( often much maligned) is the main hospital for them too. Cancer treatment appears to be largely unavailable to them at home. You can guess the result if they don't have the money to get to Bali or pay for treatment when they get there.
Another piece of trivia. A hotel worker, even after distribution of service charge on top of their Rp.800,000 sometimes a little more per month actually earns considerable less than a massage lady on the beach. Of course there are days when massage ladies cannot work due to weather but also there are quiet times in hotels when there is little service charge to be distributed.