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In the rich Persian Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where I have been passing most of my time, there are two types of people. There are the people who have a maid or maids, and the people who don’t. Most of this effect is because the citizens of these states rarely work in any jobs that involve manual labor. Instead, laborers with expertise in these fields are brought from other countries. These workers are then paid low salaries that have a lot of buying power in their home countries, but are very cheap for the citizens of the rich Persian Gulf states.

The group I encounter most in daily life is house maids. The average household seems to have two maids. This is possible because of the very affordable cost of having a maid, which is at most $200 a month plus living expenses. I have misgivings about this whole system, but then I remember the imperfections in our system, too. What minimum wage worker in the United States can save $200 a month? By contrast, a maid in these countries gets to save this $200, and usually sends a portion of it to her home country where it has incredible buying power.

The low cost of maids enables people who aren’t rich to live like rich people in the United States. The middle-class Middle-Eastern man and woman do not have to worry about sharing cleaning chores or cooking when they get home from work. There is no need for a babysitter when they want to go out alone. Many of the responsibilities of child care are passed off to the maid, creating the problem that parents aren’t forced to do any parenting of their kids.

Despite the many perks, I don’t like this type of life. Part of the reason is my awareness that I will come back to the United States, so I don’t want to get too spoiled by this system. The other reason is how much the convenience is taken for granted. When I look at my cousins who are my age, many of them have had a maid from the first day they were born. They are literally dependent on them, yet the sacrifices these maids make to improve their quality of life are not appreciated or even noted. The same can be said about the army of foreign manual laborers that are essential to the function of their society.