Is it cheap?

I'll have a few conversations over the next few months that will follow this pattern. I'll be asked about our trip, I'll wax enthusiastically about the beaches, the meals, the weather and eventually the follow up question will be a variant of “is it cheap?” Now I realize that what they want to know is it affordable, but I have to bite my tongue to keep from giving them the full answer. To answer the question you first have to know what the cost of your activity truly is and by this I mean how do your choices impact the lives of the locals. This was brought home today talking to a family that had been ferried over to Jost from their cruise boat docked in Road Town. As with every cruise ship passenger who manages to make it to JVD they were lamenting the short time they were able to spend here, the best stop of their trip. They went on to tell us about their stop yesterday in the Dominican Republic. The town was a ghetto, widespread poverty, garbage, beggars, little kids offering to carry their bags for a quarter or sell something woven from palm fronds. Now the Dominican Republic does have some very nice resorts and some offer package deals that might be considered reasonable if not exactly cheap but when we tourists focus solely on what our outlay is we overlook the fact that a cheap trip doesn't leave enough in the overall budget for the locals to even live modestly not to mention aspire to send their kids to college.
The BVIs are never going to be considered budget travel. A good meal here in a restaurant will run you about the same as a meal on the Upper West Side. The cabbie that takes you from Great Harbor to White Bay will want $8 per head for the 5 minute trip. He's not ripping you off, he's only asking you to pay what it takes for him to live modestly, raise his kids and give them the opportunity of getting a college education in the states. Not too much to ask and he knows there are only so many fares on any given day on this small island. The deal he and the rest of the locals make with you is this. Pay us fairly and you won't have to go thru a poverty stricken village on your way to the beach. You won't be pestered by his kids for a handout. Seems like a good bargain to me. I like paying my own way and it makes me feel good that what I'm paying is closer to the true cost.