I guess it's easy to forget that a very large number of people in the world still don't have electricity, running water, health care etc. The going wage for an educated person in the phillipines is about $375/month, but manual laborers out in the sticks make as little as $2/day. These guys are living in bamboo shacks with thatch roofs. An extended family might pool all their savings together to buy a bike, and the bike has to make money. There might only be a couple bikes in a small village, so the bike literally does do every job. They'll find ways of hooking things up to the wheels to use it as a stationary plant, and the pics with 10 people on a bike are taxis. They might get 5c off each person for a trip, which adds to your daily wage. While in korea I saw absolutely everything delivered by bike - whole cows, 5 or 6 live pigs, full size double door fridges, even saw some bikes with 2 or 3 other bikes on the back of them sideways. They replace the suspension with solid struts. I tried riding them unloaded, they were very under braked. I took my buddy's bike (an XT600) on the back of a small bike (125cc) for a distance of about 40 miles.
I don't think economics enters into it so much. These people are barely subsistence living, having enough foods is a cause for celebration. Getting an education for your kids is a big deal and worth skipping meals for. Major holidays are times when you can fill your tummy, properly. The concept of buy a truck or a piece of heavy equipment is so far beyond reality for most of these people that it probably doesn't even cross their mind. This sort of small scale hand logging isn't for export; most of it probably ends up milled by guys with saws for the local market. Poorer people build their houses out of whatever materials they can find, but if you're a little better off then you can afford to buy some lumber and build something a little more sturdy, possibly with electricity and maybe even a refrigerator.
[video=youtube;02QWRo1W4II]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02QWRo1W4II[/video]
I think most of you guys would have seen this vid but we might as well chuck it in here for future viewing since it's related. The guys voice is pretty annoying but you can always turn the sound off.
Shaun
otstir:
