Why are people from UAE and Dubai so rich?
They aren't all rich on average. And oil and gas is actually now only about 25% of the economy in the UAE (incredibly!). There are good reasons why it felt that way, though: The UAE and a number of other oil-rich nations all realize that they need to diversify away from oil revenues. International investment and tourism are the main ways in which they hope to attract capital (free trade/full foreign ownership/no-tax zones, World Cup, etc.). Business and government are often one and the same or working closely together, and they are extremely savvy about cultivating your experience in their company, and want to make sure they are doing everything in their power to get you to like and spend money in their country. Essentially, you are visiting their version of Las Vegas. Additionally, they have taken on massive debt to create those kinds of cities and experiences. According to the World Bank and the CIA (see here), the per capita GDP of the UAE on a Purchasing Price Parity basis is about 18% higher than in the US. Since much of the oil wealth is controlled by the state, it is not certain how evenly that income is distributed (World Bank and CIA statistics do not provide R/P or Gini data for UAE, while it is provided for most nations).
&gt;I guess I know what I need to do  I already did and I have no idea why other people don't. Why sit around and complain about it when you can simply elevate yourself?  &gt;your fantasy about providing your services to rich people  What qualifications do you have that make you think you would be hired by anyone for this type of situation? "First off learn from this:  Never cosign again.  There are plenty of other ""tales of woe"" outlined on this site that started and ended similarly. Secondly do what you can to get off of the loan.  First I'd go back to her dad and offer him $1000 to take you off the loan and sign over the car.  Maybe go up to $3000 if you have that much cash.  If that doesn't work go to the bank and offer them half of the loan balance to take you off.  You can sign a personal loan for that amount (maybe).  Whatever it takes to get off the loan.  If she has a new BF offer him the same deal as the dad. Why do you have to do this?  Because you owned an asset that was once valued at 13K and is valued at (probably) less than 4K.  Given that you have a loan on it the leverage works against you causing you to lose more money.  The goal now is to cut your losses and learn from your mistakes.     I feel like the goal of your post was to make your ex-gf look bad.  It's more important to do some self examination.  If she was such a bad person why did you date her?  Why did you enter a business transaction with her?  I'd recommend seeking counseling on why you make such poor choices and to help you avoid them in the future. Along these lines I'd also examine your goals in life.  If your desire is to be a wealthy person, then why would you borrow money to buy a car?  Seek to imitate rich people to become rich.  Picking the right friends and mates is an important part of this.   If you do not have a desire to be a wealthy person what does it matter?  Losing 13K over seven months is a small step in the ""right"" direction." "This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/18/16162234/regional-inequality-cause) reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; In the contemporary United States, zoning restrictions that prevent adequate levels of house building mean that much of the higher incomes earned in rich states simply pass through in the form of higher housing costs.  &gt; Two big shifts in migration and economics This set of four charts in Ganong and Shoag&amp;#039;s paper tells the fundamental story - in the old days, there was a strong tendency for poor states&amp;#039; per capita incomes to grow faster than those of rich ones and an equally strong tendency for people to move away from poor states to go live in rich ones.  &gt; The housing fix for regional inequality entails more rather than less concentration of economic activity in rich coastal metro areas.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6ujy5s/the_real_driver_of_regional_inequality_in_america/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~194007 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **state**^#1 **rich**^#2 **income**^#3 **move**^#4 **housing**^#5" Everyone is usually better off without insurance.  A very few people are much better off with insurance.  Insurance is a gamble and when you lose, you win.  Very few people lose badly enough to win.  Most people just pay money into insurance and never get as much back as they pay in.  For most people, in most lives, insurance is a bad deal.  The reason people crave insurance is because they cannot calculate the probability of something bad happening as well as an actuary can do so.  The gap in knowledge between you and and actuary is what make insurance providers rich and you poor.  They are smart, you are not.  You think some terrible thing is going to happen to you, they know it probably won't.  So they sell you a product you probably will never need.  Anyhow, most people can't understand probability, and how to analyze risk, so they won't get what I'm saying here. Understanding the real cost of risk is the first lesson in understanding money and wealth.  Rich people usually understand the value and cost of risk.  Hence, they only buy insurance when they expect to lose, that is, to win.  We rich people do everything only when we know already we are going to win.  We don't gamble, unless we are the house.  When a self-made rich man buys something, its because he knows already he is going to come out ahead on it, most probably. Because everyone is weighed down by student debt, that and people have been moving back to the city. I'd say there's also a lot of people that would rather spend their money on something else as well like travel and entertainment. [Here's](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-how-much-money-exists-in-the-entire-world-in-one-chart-2015-12-18) and explanation.  The broadest interpretation is that there are quadrillions (1,000,000,000,000,000) of dollars in various markets.  Bill Gates could become a Trillionaire, so even his wealth is a drop the ocean. Well, not really, but you get the idea.  A lot of this money is constantly on the move, it is impossible to track down all the movements. Value is increasing, Value is destroyed etc.  Your bank account can be tallied, but it's impossible to track down the money of the world, a continent or even a small country. Even bigger companies have trouble tracking down their money.  The idea of the 'tally' is a bit of an outdated one, it came from a time when there was a gold standard, and when old fashioned marxism  was still a thing.  //edit: words, English, difficult So a company can exploit cheap labour overseas, but their cash cannot help pension funds of people from abroad?  Multinational Corporations have no national identity. Their profits shouldn't be regarded as being gotten in just one country. If Apple's offshore money gives a guy in Bangladesh a better pension, they can buy a nice Japanese scooter, which in turn allows a Japanese girl to buy an iPod.  I'm an idealist, yes.  I wish people would stop dividing this world up with fictitious borders and stop with the whole 'us vs them' thing. You would find each chef, food maker and restaurant being a master of own where they bring Michelin-starred chefs from all over the world to produce a kind of food that makes locals, visitors and traveler forget the money they spent on Dubai Travel Packages.