Fares for a trip to Goree Island in Senegal (the Communaute Financiere Africaine franc, CFA, is the Senegalese currency) break down like this:
Foreigners:
Adults- CFA 5,000 (US $13)
Children- CFA 2,500 (US $6)
Africans:
Adults- CFA 2,500 (US $6)
Children- CFA 1,500 (US $3.60)
Senegalese:
Adults- CFA 1,500 (US $3.60)
Children- CFA 500 (US $1.20)
Johannes KiessIn this skewed pricing scheme, non-Senegalese Africans pay the most for their children relative to their own ticket.
Freakonomics reader Johannes Kiess asks:
Does the pricing mean that Africans who travel with their children must be relatively rich compared to locals and non-Africans and therefore can pay relatively more for their tickets than Africans without children?
It may seem like that’s the case when you look at what some Africans pay for their dinners:
Freakonomics reader Justin Dombrow sent in this receipt from a dinner his South African friend had at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe.
But Dombrow’s friend doesn’t have to be rich to pay one and a quarter billion Zimbabwe dollars (ZWD) for two beers, a mineral water, and one dinner.
Thanks to inflation, it comes out to just $2.70 in U.S. dollars (according to OANDA.com).
Zimbabwe’s severe inflation sparked a parody of the Million Dollar Homepage — The Million Zimbabwean Dollar Homepage (worth US $0.002159).
(Send your FREAK-worthy photos here.)
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Regarding the Senagelese question, it’s perhaps just out of simplicity of not stocking change for 250 F. Africans like things simple
I would guess that the menu lists prices in “Units”, and then the conversion rate for 1 unit = however many ZimDollars is posted (and constantly updated) at the front of the restaurant where you pay the bill. I saw this at the Novotel Hotel at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport… even though the Ruble is a stable currency now.
So then the water as listed in the menu costs 1 unit, a beer 2 units, and dinner 10 units. They post the conversion of 1 unit = Z$956,350,000 at the register and enter the factor in when they bill you.
Did anyone notice that all the prices are a factor of 500? Half of 2500 is 1250 but I would bet that anything (coins?) under 500 are rare. So I would guess one number was rounded up and one rounded down.
I was in Turkey this past February. They recently dropped SIX (6) zeros from their currency! They don’t have 1 kuruÅŸ coins (1/100 Lira) that I saw, so their smallest unit of currency is 5/100 Lira. This used to be 50,000 Lira.
This is some serious depreciation:
1966 – 1 U.S. dollar = 9 lira
1980 – 1 U.S. dollar = 90 lira
1988 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,300 lira
1995 – 1 U.S. dollar = 45,000 lira
1996 – 1 U.S. dollar = 107,000 lira
2001 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,650,000 lira
2004 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,350,000 lira
2007 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,260,000 (old) lira = 1.26 new lira
2008 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,200,000 (old) lira = 1.20 new lira
a little off topic, but for the longest time, there was this convenient store nearby advertizing bud lite:
6 packs: $3.49
18 pacs: $10.99
as i see it, if someone is foolish enough to buy the 18 pack, they earned the extra $0.52 price tag.
I have a 1 million lira note from Turkey. Anyone can be a millionaire, all you have to do is move to the third world.
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McDonalds in Manhattan is the same way with their chicken mcnuggets. It’s $2.99 for a 10-pack, but only $1 for a 4-pack.
this is awesome
Luke. To me it’s worth the extra $0.52 to only have to carry 1 case home, not 3.