zlacker

>>Geeket+(OP)
All I ever hear is horror stories about this place: environmental destruction, structural racism, serious abuse of human rights, culturally hyper conservative, corrupt legal system, plus it's absurdly hot. I can't believe anyone would voluntarily go there, seems like hell on earth.

>>retube+ue
I've been to Dubai, and other parts of the UAE, a few times. It can be enjoyable for short durations, but I am not sure I'd want to live there long term.

I am not saying the things you mentioned do not happen, but they're not as overly apparent as they are in some other parts of the Middle East, or China.

The heat though, yeah, that's a thing. When you have air conditioned bus stops, it's a different level.

>>brk+yh
Of course it’s enjoyable for brief tourist/business visits, you’ve got literal slaves attending to you.

>>moreli+0i
A redditor living there once responded to "why would you be okay living in a country with slave labor?" by asking the commenter: who made the stuff they owned. Who mined the minerals for your electronics (probably exploited miners), who made your clothes (probably underpaid Bangladeshis). So the difference between the average Westerner and a Dubaian is the distance the slaves are to the consumer.

>>netsha+Hu
I am also not exactly a fan of capitalism, and agree the line between slavery and wage slavery is thinner than most westerners think. But it's a lot easier (in every sense) for me not go party in Dubai than it is to live without pants or even a computer; just like a remedy of "just give them their passports back" is a lot easier to put into action than a way for Bangladeshi tailors to more fully capture their labor value on the global market.

Living there, as in being born there and having family and friendly connections, also presents a different set of moral and personal challenges vs. deciding to open a branch of my business there or taking a vacation there. In an abstract moral sense I'd like to divest myself of the US for a decade now, but that would be both materially dangerous until an alternative citizenship is effectively secured, and unfair to my family members who still live there.