Oneofmany writes:
I wouldn’t compare the Arab states and Iran to the Western and Asian ones in terms of socialism or economics.The Arab peninsula has socialized food distribution and medicine paid for by high oil revenues to feed almost everyone but everything else is a joke.
There is no real middle class, little economic activity derived from intellectual and artistic skills or interests, very little business and hobby types forging creative industry and small businesses, no political will to make upper and lower class interests work together.
Your either a wealthy connected type who lives in segregated properties and developments with lavish imported architecture, food, cars, and toys or you live in the depressing spans of identical government housing blocks and work in an underpaid servicing job. Of course that’s not even counting the virtual slave labor they bring in from south east Asia and India.
The West and Japan (as well as China to lesser degree) have far more fleshed out economies and social capital, a real middle class driven economy and far more opportunity to economically and socially advance.
Also, if happiness and fulfillment mean anything than their certainly a bust in that area.
Based on self reporting the Islamic world is the most miserable place on Earth outside of the poorest parts of Africa and Haiti.
These sort of comments are typically tossed about by those who hate Arabs such as Hindus and Jews. I am amazed you are parroting this stuff.
This is not really true. Most Arab countries are pretty socialist. If the state doesn’t take care of it, the Islamic charities do. There is what you call socialized food distribution all over the region, including Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Palestine. All of North Africa has been pretty socialist for a long time now. All of Gulf is socialist for its citizens.
North Africa and the Gulf have huge middle classes, as did Syria and Iraq. Lebanon has a vast middle class. Palestine is a mess, but the people are pretty middle class in behavior and outlook and further, horrific 3rd World slums do not exist.
What passes for so-called poverty in the Arab World is really not so bad compared to the true poverty of Latin America, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Africa. Everyone has a place to live and enough food to eat and generally education and medical care is available as is transportation. There are no homeless.
Yemen is the only Arab state with a lot of real poverty and malnutrition but I do not understand that situation well. I believe that the state is broke too.
Oligarchic neoliberal Libertarian laissez faire economies simply do not exist in the Arab World. They simply do not believe their fellow Arabs should go without food or medicine.
You are wrong about businesses in the Arab World. In the Levant, Mesopotamia, and North Africa there are a vast number of small businesses and quite a few Arab-run large businesses too. Economies boom right along. I do not know much about the Gulf, but looking at Dubai, I would hardly say there is little business activity going on there.
The slave labor in the Gulf is really the only real true poverty in the Arab World.
I have known a number of folks from that area, male and female, from Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait, and all of them were living pretty nice, rather middle class and happy lives. Arabs do not seem to be miserable type people. They like to enjoy life.
I do not agree that Arabs are the most depressed people on Earth. Look over at Scandinavia or Russia for that.
