A dollar and a half difference

So one of the most fascinating aspects to observe while travelingI in a culture is the treatment of foreigners. Now certainly, it makes perfectly good sense for foreigners to be charged more when they are staying in seperate resorts, living in hotels and just in general it's a bit custmary for outsiders to be charged more especially when negotiating.
However, what I feel makes a strong difference between a more third world economy and a modern day, often westernized world is same/same prices across the board... And now the example is this....
Currently, I am writing this from a bus heading from hurghada to suez canal. When in Luxor, I got a bus ticket only to hurghada, but with a change in plans, I decided it was time to just keep moving through the night towards Sinai again.
Upon arriving in Luxor, the very unfriendly, loud and incessant bus money man informed me it was time to get off. I let him know "suez," so he was aware in my change...
He gave me the annoyed look, as though I had somehow made this change just to make him mad...

"How much" and he replied with 50 pounds! I knew immediately that this was higher than it was supposed to be, so I said 35 pounds, which would have been accurate based on the original 75 pound price I was quoted in Luxor for both legs of the trip.
So, he began to get upset and throw around his crazy eqyptian temper, talking to everyone around him either complaining or speaking loudly just for fun :)
One of these individuals was my friend timpy, who spoke English rather well. He informed me that for locals it was 40 and for foreigners it was 50.
Now, this was not a museum...
This was not a hotel....
This was not even a falafal sandwich....
This was one man right next to me, on the same bus, breathing the same air, listening to the same bad Arabic music,
one of us paying 10 pounds more simply because of our nationality...
So I walked outside with the irrate money man, we negotiated some more, he decided to include the entire bus station community in our conversation...
I did some yelling... He did some yelling, and even the corrupt police decided to poke their head into the situation...
I explained my situation to him and he just concluded what the bus man was indicating, that I was supposed to pay more...
At the end of the day I knew I would be paying the ten pounds more, breaking my wallet and loosing a whooping $1.75...!!!
For me the amount of money obviously did not mean anything, but this example proved to me the vast difference in economy and structure that is deeply engrained into a vast majority of the Egyptians I have experienced..
...try to weasle every foreigner for each pound I can get....
Now, I did not say everyone, as I have met some very sincere Egyptians, but this is simply a generalized observation into their states of being in the world...
Now I recognize equally the many times I have weasled people with money, or probably not negotiated properly, and I equally own that aspect of my own inner self, so this observation is not in judgement, but nearly in concious observation..
However, this observation is simply that, a local experiental outlook at some of the trade and commerce down here in Egypt.
I recognize it's part of the culture, so I have great enjoyment in the negotiation, even when it's for only a 1.75...
For no matter what the value of money in any deal, the true values of our human spirit and culture will always shine on through...

Location:Hurghada, Egypt