What’s the median of these data? It looks like these are pure outliers which skews the data.
Swinight22 on
I was in Qatar few weeks ago, staying with a Qatari local that I met awhile back.
The sheer amount of “free” things they get from the government is insane. Obviously free healthcare, education (they pay tuition even if you study abroad), etc. But they also provide land for any family, government jobs are handed out where you make mid six figure salary.
I will also say this though – i also stayed in workers-only hostels in the gulf and I met many workers working in Qatar & Gulf countries, and this notion of “slave labor” that the West uses doesn’t really apply to most anymore. Is there a massive gap in wealth? Of course. The [Kafala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafala_system) system is illegal now, and most workers go because the salary is so much higher than back home. Pretty much everyone I talked to said it’s hard work, but is better than working back home with no future prospects.
Especially Dubai, it’s seen by Asians & Africans kinda like how the west sees New York. It might be hard, but it’s a place where anyone from any background can go and “make it”. Judging Dubai because of some influencers is like thinking NY is only for the mega rich flaunting wealth cause of influencers.
Lots of problems for sure. And of course there are still slave labor practices all around. But in the same way that America has “slave labors”, forcing illegal immigrants to work, it’s just a small percentage of workers now. I mean think about it – the pay the foreign workers get is so little anyways, and the supply of the workers is so high, why would they need to continue it when they’re trying to “clean up” their image?
It’s a nuanced topic, and I hate seeing it summed up as “Middle East does slave labor”.
newdawn15 on
This isn’t really a great way to look at it. These countries are able to generate high GDP per citizen by importing labor, paying it not very much, never giving it citizenship and then keeping the profits. But they now have a situation where the world is changing into a “might makes right” world. The previous model worked because US power kept trade/international law/sea lanes/oil flow etc. stable, which made this economic model available to small, homogenous countries and allowed them to run up huge profits. That is no longer the case.
It would be extremely easy for Iran to take over Qatar. Pakistan could turn UAE into a colony very quickly. This is because these countries have massive populations and exponentially larger militaries. And might now makes right, with the US unable to enforce the old model.
Point is, we should all be very skeptical looking at these figures and deeming them a barometer of long term well being. The US might have much lower GDP per citizen, but that number isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. By contrast, it is highly likely the average UAE citizen, for example, ends up paying taxes to Iran in the next 30 years.
sebesbal on
GDP per workforce would make more sense (because of the crossborder workers), and that would show to opposite distortion in many cases (e.g. Luxembourg)
Nomad-2020 on
All these countries have small population, except for Australia and Saudi Arabia, that’s why they’re having huge per capita figures.
Kudos to Australia and Saudi Arabia, good job! For the others, nothing impressive.
6 Comments
Gulf countries are idols…fuck western leftism 😂
What’s the median of these data? It looks like these are pure outliers which skews the data.
I was in Qatar few weeks ago, staying with a Qatari local that I met awhile back.
The sheer amount of “free” things they get from the government is insane. Obviously free healthcare, education (they pay tuition even if you study abroad), etc. But they also provide land for any family, government jobs are handed out where you make mid six figure salary.
I will also say this though – i also stayed in workers-only hostels in the gulf and I met many workers working in Qatar & Gulf countries, and this notion of “slave labor” that the West uses doesn’t really apply to most anymore. Is there a massive gap in wealth? Of course. The [Kafala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafala_system) system is illegal now, and most workers go because the salary is so much higher than back home. Pretty much everyone I talked to said it’s hard work, but is better than working back home with no future prospects.
Especially Dubai, it’s seen by Asians & Africans kinda like how the west sees New York. It might be hard, but it’s a place where anyone from any background can go and “make it”. Judging Dubai because of some influencers is like thinking NY is only for the mega rich flaunting wealth cause of influencers.
Lots of problems for sure. And of course there are still slave labor practices all around. But in the same way that America has “slave labors”, forcing illegal immigrants to work, it’s just a small percentage of workers now. I mean think about it – the pay the foreign workers get is so little anyways, and the supply of the workers is so high, why would they need to continue it when they’re trying to “clean up” their image?
It’s a nuanced topic, and I hate seeing it summed up as “Middle East does slave labor”.
This isn’t really a great way to look at it. These countries are able to generate high GDP per citizen by importing labor, paying it not very much, never giving it citizenship and then keeping the profits. But they now have a situation where the world is changing into a “might makes right” world. The previous model worked because US power kept trade/international law/sea lanes/oil flow etc. stable, which made this economic model available to small, homogenous countries and allowed them to run up huge profits. That is no longer the case.
It would be extremely easy for Iran to take over Qatar. Pakistan could turn UAE into a colony very quickly. This is because these countries have massive populations and exponentially larger militaries. And might now makes right, with the US unable to enforce the old model.
Point is, we should all be very skeptical looking at these figures and deeming them a barometer of long term well being. The US might have much lower GDP per citizen, but that number isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. By contrast, it is highly likely the average UAE citizen, for example, ends up paying taxes to Iran in the next 30 years.
GDP per workforce would make more sense (because of the crossborder workers), and that would show to opposite distortion in many cases (e.g. Luxembourg)
All these countries have small population, except for Australia and Saudi Arabia, that’s why they’re having huge per capita figures.
Kudos to Australia and Saudi Arabia, good job! For the others, nothing impressive.