Monstrous vats and barrels of honey tower around us. We are visiting a honey factory, one of the largest in the region, and our tour is now taking us back to the packaging process.

The thing that has surprised me the most about India is the affordability of labor. Inside the packaging plant are nothing more than two large stainless-steel tables and two-dozen workers. One worker fills the bottles by hand. Another screws the lids on. The worker with the sheets of labels hands one label at a time to the worker who puts the labels on the bottles of honey. Another worker puts the bottles in boxes, and another tapes the boxes shut.

Not a moving part in the whole process except hands. Shocked that people can be cheaper than machines, we ask what the laborers were paid, but our guide politely refuses to answer the question.

We tour a brick kiln. There the workers dig clay with shovels and form bricks by hand. I join in and slowly make one brick before asking how much we are earning. Each worker is paid $4.50 for each 1,000 bricks they can hand-form.

We watch rugs being made by hand. I can't help but think that an electric motor on the looms would make the process more efficient. But the workers run the shuttles and treadles manually. Again I ask about labor costs. Laborers make $50 to $75 per month for the rugs they produce. I don't want to know right now what the rugs sell for.

I estimate that the majority of people in India cannot afford any sort of used car. They walk for hours or ride ox carts or ride bicycles. It is humbling to me that most laborers in this country make less in each month of hard work than most of us make on any given Friday afternoon.

Not everyone is in the same class. At the four-day wedding we attended last night, our host explains that he spent 6 million rupees on food alone. That's $125,000 for food. Based on his other comments, I estimate that a similar amount was spent on flowers and decorations. "Weddings are very important in our culture," he explains. "It's a once in a lifetime chance to honor our children."

I went to a men's clothing store yesterday. The suits I wanted seemed reasonable by American prices. Later I calculated that they are the equivalent of more than 8 years of our chauffeur's salary. I wonder how far that money would go on any of the humanitarian projects we've seen, but I'm too selfish to do much about it.

I've decided that if you really want to know someone, look at how they spend their money. If you want to know yourself, look at where your money has gone. Where a person's dollar is, there their heart is also.