RE: PhotoDiary-8, The Colorful People of India – Individuals (Images and Reality)
you will not see many of the top 20% of Indians – that is, the white-collar, English-educated elite. Those fortunate few are comfortably ensconced in their tall condos, or in their large, 3-storey, air-conditioned homes, or else riding in their air-conditioned cars on the way to the nation’s new, air-conditioned malls or office buildings.
I thought I was lower middle class, but after reading this I think most of the Libyans are middle class not the lower one..... Too bad that the Top class is very top compared to the rest...
While it's struggle for many Libyans to live as"comfotably" ... but many of us have better than the minimum we need to life and in air-conditioned homes... so we're not the worse off country.
t least, nothing like the middle classes in Europe, North America, and other developed nations. If any Indian claims to be from the middle class, he’s probably ranked somewhere in the top 80%–95%.
It's smilar in Libya as stated above... but it's the opposite here. Our middle class isn't like USA and Europe.... It's less wealthy, but it's there.
Hi Ahmad, and thanks for your insightful comment.
Yes, India's lack of middle class sets it apart from almost every other country. I've travelled through Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and more, and none of the underclasses in those countries can be compared to that of India.
Of course, every country and every society has its poor (as well as its very rich), but in no other countries does over 50% or even 60% of the population live on so little of the wealth. The inequality is shocking.
Moreover, the middle class is different in different countries. I've lived in Canada, the US, Japan, India, Singapore and now Thailand. Besides India, each of those countries has a large middle class of its own. Even if someone convinces me that India DOES HAVE a middle class, I could easily argue that it's a lot smaller and a lot poorer than the middle class of any other country.
I've read a bit about Libya over the past few years, and I remember reading that it had a fairly equitable, educated, stable society ... until the US came and ripped it apart.
As a Libyan, what's your perspective on that?
Every Libyan you'd ask opinion will be different on this, But that's what I think... I don't blame US much, but after the "revolution" everything is going downhill here. The worst thing is that people make excuses to not fix anything these days...
There's something I always said after this revolution: "Freedom is toxic, you can't have a free society and secure one at the same time, and not everyone can handle freedom."
But at least I have hope it'll become better...
Yes, let's hope it becomes better.
I really like your quote about freedom. It's very interesting, and in some ways, very true.