Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were born in your sponsored child’s country?

What trials would you face if you were born in Bangladesh? Or Sri Lanka? Or Honduras?

A friend just sent me a great resource which might help you answer that question.

The site www.ifitweremyhome.com allows you to compare aspects of life in the US with life in any number of countries.

One of my favorite features is the country size comparison – the site places the basic outline of a country over a map of the US so you can understand just how large a country is. Bangladesh, where my sponsored child Munni lives, was a lot smaller than I thought – and Sovanna's country of Cambodia was much larger that I realized.
 
But that's not all. The site then gives you a list of facts. If I, like Munni, was born in Bangladesh instead of the United States, I would…

• Use 98.92% less electricity
• Make 96.55% less money
• Die 17.61 years sooner

If I lived in Bangladesh, I’d also have more babies, spend less money on health care, and experience less of a class divide.

Wait a minute. What? How would I experience less class divide? I thought issues of class and status determine an awful lot in Bangladesh – where you can live, if you can go to school, etc.

If you read the fine print (if you can understand the fine print) you can learn how the resource the website uses calculates the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income – in this case, using the GINI Index.

Now, I freely admit that economics was not my strong suit, but something in that comparison seemed off. So when I read that I’d have a 73.12% chance of being employed if I lived in Bangladesh, I quickly realized that numbers – even straight statistical comparisons – don’t tell the full story.

Comparing the unemployment rates does not take into account how Bangladeshis are employed (or how little they are paid). Backbreaking labor – brick making, day laboring, subsistence farming – they are jobs, yes, but that doesn’t mean I would be better off finding work in Bangladesh. According to this site, I’d also make 96.55% less money!

All that to say, these figures aren’t as straightforward as you might think.

If I lived in Bangladesh, I’d use almost 99% less electricity because most Bangladeshis use oil lamps and don’t have electricity.

I’d spend less on health care because I likely wouldn’t have access to it. At all. Which explains why I’m 9.4 times more likely to die before my first birthday.

That doesn’t mean this site isn’t worth a look. Just remember that the snapshot it provides is just that – a quick, somewhat educational peek into your sponsored child’s world.