The Large Gap Between the Rich and Poor in Third World Countries

There Is No Middle Class in the Third World

The world is in an economic mess no what which country you mean. First world countries like United States, Canada, and Great Britain are full of people who are unemployed and people who are living below poverty. This is a deplorable situation for every country.

Meanwhile, first world countries are also full of wealthy people who live the high life. Through hard work at jobs that have allowed them to retire eventually in luxury, a job that pays high wages in the first place so that the people never knew poverty, or inheriting money rich people are very rich indeed. There is nothing wrong with this unless they pay their employees low wages or send all their jobs overseas. Some rich people actually do this. However - There are plenty of rich people that do neither of these things. They pay their employees proper wages and try the best they can to run a business in an world economy that is tanking.

But first world countries have a middle class. Always remember this. No matter how bad the situation is in our countries, we do indeed have a class of people who are neither living in squalor nor in a huge estate. Because of this middle class, there is some balance where we live. It does not excuse the fact that poor people can't afford to take care of themselves. However, it does mean that the extremes are not as noticeable as in, say, Hong Kong.


In third world countries, there is a huge divide between the rich and the poor. You either have everything or you have nothing. You would not think that it is possible for third world countries to have any rich people at all. But you look at countries with natural resources like oil and the oil barons are living in palaces. Meanwhile, individual citizens try not to die of starvation and the barons look away.

When you are a poor person struggling to survive, you take any job you can get. This means you will often work for next to nothing. There is nothing wrong with that. You must eat. You must have shelter. It is only people who are in a position to ease the situation but do nothing who are the problem.

There are plenty of companies who have always paid workers the proper wages and have always done this. Unfortunately, these companies tend to come from first world countries only, and not the third world countries themselves (i.e. the oil barons in Saudi Arabia.) This tends to suggest that while first world countries have a wide variety of people who cannot be categorized into one group, the same cannot be said of third world countries.

This is the problem with the government boycotting third world products or companies. It is also what makes the middle class person living in a first world country terribly conflicted and confused over what to do when going shopping. There seems to be a lose-lose situation for him where either he buys and lines the products of rich companies or allows the poor people to starve.