A bowl of pho for 4 million VND - unreasonable or reasonable?

Six years ago, a restaurant in the Ton That Dam market area – the first restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City to receive a Michelin star in June – caused a stir when it sold a bowl of pho for $100 (over VND2 million). This was the most expensive bowl of pho in Vietnam at that time.

However, the most expensive bowl of pho in Vietnam at the moment, priced at 4 million VND, is sold at a restaurant in a hotel on the 66th floor of the 81-story Landmark building in Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City.

A bowl of pho costs 4 million, the ingredients used are all high-end, including A5 wagyu beef - the highest level when evaluating the quality of wagyu beef; foie gras; truffle mushrooms, or diamond mushrooms, originating from Australia, priced at 45 million VND per kg; food gold leaf, placed on the edge of the bowl.

Just like 6 years ago with a bowl of pho costing 100 USD, the bowl of pho costing 4 million VND now causes a stir and creates controversial opinions on the online community.

Many people think that a bowl of pho that costs 4 million VND is unreasonably expensive. Who are they selling a bowl of pho for that cost 4 million VND?

That in these difficult economic times, someone spending 4 million VND, equivalent to a month's salary of an ordinary worker, just to eat a bowl of pho is too wasteful, is overspending, is spending money improperly, is "insulting" to the poor...

It is true that our country’s average salary and income are still low, while the gap between rich and poor is getting deeper. However, the solution to these problems is not the responsibility of those who spend 4 million VND on a bowl of pho.

And it is these people who will know whether 4 million VND for a bowl of pho is worth it or not, not the majority of us, who are "eating pho" through photos!

Furthermore, comparing the amount of money someone has to spend on a bowl of pho with a month's salary of an ordinary worker, or converting a car with 3,000 buffaloes like before is unreasonable and somewhat lame.

In the very famous book “A Brief History of Humankind” which has been translated into dozens of languages, author Yuval Noah Harari has a very interesting statement that “Evolution is based on difference, not equality”.

“Evolution based on differences” is also the rule of life or the development of a society. It is a simple story of supply and demand, where there are buyers, there will be sellers, you get what you pay for. It has nothing to do with morality or income, the gap between rich and poor… of each component in society.

Therefore, the question "who do they sell a bowl of pho for 4 million VND to?", along with other related questions and comments, is as absurd as the question "who are the supercars and luxury goods priced from tens of millions to tens of billions of VND produced to sell to?"

Ultimately, we'd better not teach the rich and the wealthy how to spend their money wisely…

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