>I really think that UT should have different rates for PUTM for people from different countries. I am a Chinese. I worked for the Chinese Academy of Sciences some ten years ago and I made about $30/month, and if I were still there I would have made at most $100/month now. Why cannot UT allow members from poorer countries to pay less in order to become PUTM, say 50$/yr or even 25$/yr for the poorest countries?

I am NOT speaking as sysop now, but just my very personal thoughts (I lived in the Eastern Europe for 28 years):

Basically, the fact that a country is poorer than other is not a reason to have special prices. This applies to any product, not only to PUTM. Why have special prices based on countries and not based on the annual income of the buyer? But then, the annual income should be measured considering the country, the city, the number of children, the cost of living, etc, etc. Practically, it's impossible to make a totally correct rule and it would be just too much hassle.
On the Internet, it's almost impossible to now the real geographical position when you have only an email address. So, it's impossible to know for sure where is a buyer located.

Besides these, the price is established based on demand and other factors that usually have nothing to do with the wellfare of specific countries.

Vlad