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Originally Posted by That Guy
why do most people work there? the money. 200k+ wasn't that hard to get there not that long ago.
UAE is sort of a weird place though. you have 7 different emirates, lots of oil money and basically 2 social classes. the emiraties (10%), that are stupid rich (they get gifted hundreds of thousands for turning 18 etc, i think all their officers are millionaires), and the working class (mainly immigrants) that do a lot of the shop keeping etc type stuff.
i mean, in the last 5 years their population doubled, and the 10 before that it doubled again, so i imagine the legal system hasn't quite kept up, though it's still based more on middle eastern principles that we find a bit outdated.
not excusing what happened, egypt has had the same issues since the 70s, but dubai is probably the closest/most american friendly places you'll find over in that part of the world.
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I am not sure about those who work in the UAE, but in several other locations in the Middle East U.S. contractors etc. are exempt from paying federal taxes on that money. Combine that with the fact that most of the time you are confined to a compound and really have nothing to spend your money on. It's a great way to save up a nice little nest egg.
Once again I am not claiming to know if this is the case in the UAE, but it is in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and formerly in places like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. I believe that we no longer have a presence in the latter 2, but I could be wrong. If we do have a presence it's not as large as it once was.