A heartbreaking work of staggering cheapness

A heartbreaking work of staggering cheapness

Don't have a cow, man (Image: FotoosVanRobin)

With all the fuss over students struggling to buy food using OSAP funds, it’s easy to miss other victims of Toronto’s high cost of living: expat European investment bankers. One individual has bravely blown the lid off of their plight. On the U.K.-based financial services Web site hereisthecity.com, next to an article called “My Bonus Isn’t Big Enough,” we found (with the help of the Post) Polar Roller’s scathing missive: “The Canadian Rip-Off.” In it, he discusses his horror at having to spend more than $10 for lunch here and takes umbrage at his maid’s paycheque, which, by his reckoning, is a full 20 per cent more than he pays his cleaner back home.

The greatest consternation for the poor banker, who valiantly survived the credit crunch of last year, was the whopping $30 his wife spent for some cuts of organic, grass-fed beef. “Surprising, also,” he writes, “how the absence of medication increases the price of a product.”

We wonder what whine went best with that beef.

• The Great Canadian Rip-Off [Hereisthecity.com]