There's a main taxi cab company in Dubai - and having left a wallet in the back of a cab, my friend went there to get the wallet back. The room ( which most citizens don't see) was covered with "wanted" posters of people trying to escape: people in debt or who's two year construction contracts weren't up etc...
I didn't ask, but I assume the cabbies (who also live in "dorms" outside the city) - get rewards for turning people in. While dorms for cabbies are better than for construction workers, they're still horrid.
Each cabbie shares a bed with a person who works a different shift. Workers don't even get a bed - just a time when they can sleep in one. And construction workers - they die like flies. Airports have an abandoned car problem. Housing prices fell recently and people just leave everything - car, furniture, everything and tell the authorities they are going on vacation. The lucky ones get out and never come back.
My friend was once a multiculturlist - feeling that all cultures were equal. This person ( who's still a liberal) now feels all cultures have some things of value, but is firmly in the camp of "the United States being (all things considered) the best place to live" - "we won the lotto just being born here"...
That's why my question...
Well then, we seem to agree.
Even the poorest and most put upon person in the USA is better off than 80% of the world’s population.