[TwoFerMaggie]

Having lived in an actual third world country for a couple decades, I personally can't take statements such as "xx is becoming more like a third world country" seriously. I get the sentiment behind it though.

If I compare, for example, my experience living in cities in China vs cities in Europe, I would argue that the relative freedom of movement forces residents in Europe to confront the inequality in their everyday lives.

In China, on the other hand, such inequality can be easily covered up by either confining the migrant workers (an artificially created underclass of people without hukou[0] registration in the city but still seek opportunities there) in urban villages[1], or sometimes, simply cracking down on and expelling them through policy changes with little resistance[2].

I don't doubt the fact that you're not a sheltered person, but even the average urban residents in China can be oblivious to the plight or even the existence of such an underclass. I'd argue that one can be quite sheltered even if they live there, which is also by design. And this is actually quite common in relatively wealthy Asian countries, see this example [3] in Singapore of how people talk about maids.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_village_(China)

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/27/china-ruthless...

[3] https://youtu.be/QH9fX4KIhZg?si=Yp5KjI59Owc09fvd&t=1007

[Phil_Latio]

This is stupid argument. He/She was talking about something relative, that is, relative to what it was 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. You can't come along and pick some worse example from another place.

With the same logic you could say wages don't need to increase for the next 20 years, or police can be defunded because more crime is not so important, because the 3rd world is off way worse...

[TwoFerMaggie]

> with the same logic you could say...

The comment I replied to said "it's feeling more like a third world country", I replied "no it's not even close to an actual third world country". I don't see how you could then derive that I meant "therefore it's not important".

Are third world countries the only place where things need fixing?

[rangestransform]

I don’t want to be confronted with inequality every day

[TwoFerMaggie]

(forgive me if it's sarcasm and I missed it)

Nobody wants confrontation because it's uncomfortable. But inequality like this is literally the inescapable reality migrant workers live in. Your average locals might be able to turn a blind eye to it, they can't.

Seems at least a little bit hypocritical to enjoy the life made easier by (often imported) cheap labor while not wanting to be aware of their troubles, or you know, live with them in close proximity.