See the world!
Here’s how I would describe Orange County, my home since 2017:
1. The population is a bit over 3 million.
2. It’s one of the most affluent places in the entire world. There are many luxury car dealerships, marinas that are full of expensive boats, and elegant shopping malls full of the usual stores.
3. It has a very diverse population, which comes from all over the world. Some women wear headscarves.
4. Most of the hard work is done by immigrants from low income countries. The native born are quite fortunate.
5. It was mostly built after the advent of the automobile, and hence almost everything looks fairly new. It is also very spread out, and lacks quaint old walkable neighborhoods. You need a car to go almost everywhere.
6. The weather in January is mild and pleasant. There are some big theme parks for children.
7. Some US military people are stationed here.
My wife and I recently decided to take a vacation. I wanted to get as far away from Orange County as possible, to see a very different part of the world. I’d always dreamed about visiting the exotic, ancient Near East. The world of Scheherazade. The world of camel trains and remote oases in the midst of great sandy deserts. A place with little coastal villages full of pearl divers and souks with rug merchants that served tea as they bargained over prices. The mysterious Orient!
Then I saw the name “Abu Dhabi”, which sounded exactly like what I was looking for. It was on the other side of the world—I wouldn’t even need to adjust my watch. So we booked three nights in an Abu Dhabi hotel. Upon arrival, we discovered that Abu Dhabi has the following characteristics:
1. The population is a bit over 3 million.
2. It’s one of the most affluent places in the entire world. There are many luxury car dealerships, marinas that are full of expensive boats, and elegant shopping malls full of the usual stores.
3. It has a very diverse population, which comes from all over the world. Some women wear headscarves.
4. Most of the hard work is done by immigrants from low income countries. The native born are quite fortunate.
5. It was mostly built after the advent of the automobile, and hence almost everything looks fairly new. It is also very spread out, and lacks quaint old walkable neighborhoods. You need a car to go almost everywhere.
6. The weather in January is mild and pleasant. There are some big theme parks for children.
7. Some US military people are stationed here.
In fairness, Abu Dhabi’s government buildings are way more impressive than those of Orange County. Otherwise, not much difference.
If you plan to visit, I’d wait a couple years until they finish the museum island, which will be a showcase of modern architecture.
Part 2: I wrote the above a few weeks ago. Since then, we visited Oman and Qatar. Oman was a bit more like I envisioned the Middle East, although even it has been transformed by oil wealth. Its road system seems every bit as good as the US system, maybe better. Qatar is a very new country. Its population has grown from 25,000 in 1950 to roughly 3 million today. Qatar is even richer than Abu Dhabi, although oddly it seemed much more foreign to me. Whereas in Abu Dhabi we stayed in a suburban location, in Qatar we were right in the central area, in a Western urbanist’s idea of a dream neighborhood, with lots of very stylish young people hanging out.
I recall once being startled to see Western waiters serving wealthy Asians at a restaurant in Hong Kong. I recognized that this probably reflected a deep seated prejudice about the natural order of things. I had the same feeling in Qatar, but based on dress, not ethnicity. In Qatar, both the locals and the foreigners tend to look Middle Eastern/South Asian. But the locals are more likely to dress in traditional Middle Eastern clothing. (Not sure why this surprised me, but it did.) And of course they are also the upper class in Qatar—overturning my prejudice that people in traditional costumes are more backward than those in Western dress.
I suspect that there is much more that could be said about the complex sociology of this region, but I’m already in way over my head, so feel free to enlighten me in the comment section.
PS. I have a better post on the same theme over at Econlog.
PPS. Here’s a picture of Orange County in 1920. I did not see any oil wells in Abu Dhabi or Qatar:
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10. February 2024 at 11:47
I lived in Doha for a little over a year back in around 2010, I have to say, it was one of the better places I lived. I liked the relaxed Arab pacing, the availability of Western amenities and standards, good food, and affordability. Also to this day I’m still impressed by their Islamic art museum.
10. February 2024 at 15:43
The Emirates is not multicultural.
I have a business bank account there; I’ve been there probably 40 times in the last four years.
Your mistaken.
Work visas, residency permission, and citizenship are very different things.
When you look around and see filipinos working at the shops, and foreigners working in oil fields, and beautiful women from around the world working for the Emirate airlines, it’s important to understand that they’ve been given a work visa or short term residency visa to fufill a requirement: namely, to do a job that the locals don’t want to do.
Foreigners have very few rights. Try to apply for Asylum in Emirates and see what happens. You’ll be on the first flight out.
And everyone knows that the Emirates is rich. That’s nothing new. In fact, it’s the playground of the world’s rich.
10. February 2024 at 17:39
Peter, Yes, the Islamic Art Museum is great.
Sara, You said:
“The Emirates is not multicultural.”
LOL, it’s one of the most multicultural places on Earth.
“Work visas, residency permission, and citizenship are very different things.”
Hah! I never would have guessed.
10. February 2024 at 18:52
To be fair, trying applying for asylum anywhere but the white West. Wanna bet on how many Syrian refugees or hell, asylum seekers period, Japan took. How many Ukrainian refugees ended up in China. Last time I visited Jakarta, it was swimming in Ecuadorian refugees.
@Sara: I can’t speak to all of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are extremely multicultural, two of the most multicultural places I’ve ever been. Don’t confuse legal rights with culture. Also practical speaking, you have more freedom from government oppression in both those places than America for example. Never got a speeding ticket nor arrested and jailed overnight for jaywalking in either of those places unlike the land of the free.
10. February 2024 at 19:08
So what is your point?
Are you implying that every place that is wealthy looks like Orange County and UAE?
Was 1920’s London poor? It was like 99% white back then.
Is modern day Riyadh poor? It’s 99% Saudi.
Is modern day Shanghai poor? It’s 99% Chinese.
It’s also odd that you claim to have been to UAE, yet haven’t seen a single oil field. You do realize that UAE is one of the largest producers of oil in the world. The Zakum field in Abu Dhabi has like 90B in reserves.
I mean, you must not be looking for hard because the oil fields are everywhere.
10. February 2024 at 22:54
“I mean, you must not be looking for hard because the oil fields are everywhere.”
Many of the Abu Dhabi Emirate’s oil fields are out in the Persian (aka, Arabian) Gulf.
And the onshore oil fields are not terribly close to the city of Abu Dhabi:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/a-Location-map-of-the-onshore-and-offshore-fields-of-Abu-Dhabi-b-Location-map-of-the_fig1_236016831
11. February 2024 at 03:55
[…] And Scott compares Abu Dhabi and Orange County, CA. […]
11. February 2024 at 05:32
For someone so interested in liberalism, I’m surprised you’re evaluating relative degrees of being “backward” based on who has oil wealth, as if the Clampetts of the Beverly Hillbillies were the apex of progress. If a negative shock to GDP made a country poorer, would it be sensible to say it had therefore gone “backward”?
11. February 2024 at 06:16
The first thing a well-traveled person learns is that most locals don’t want them there.
It’s quite funny, actually. You see, everyone is willing to take your money. They’ll happily build a five-start resort to lure you. They’ll offer you tours, take you to the finest restaurants, coffee shops, beaches and mountains, and speak English even though it’s tiresome. They might even take you to a sadistic art gallery which you seem to enjoy.
But at the end of the day, when they go home, they want to speak their local language. They want a place they can call home, where people have the same tradition and culture. In Qatar that means wearing the Kandurah dress, speaking Arabic, going to a Mosque, teaching their kids the Koran, etc.
Case in pont: Venice recently asked tourists to please stop coming. Amsterdam banned cruises because the sheer number of passengers is the equivalent to an invasion.
Boracay restricted the number of tourists to 6000 per day, because the beach was overwhelmed. The locals had to beg Chinese to please follow the rules, because most do not. Some of them were even taking buckets of white sand back to China.
An Austrian town recently blockaded the road to keep tourists from destroying their community.
So yes, please do travel because you will realize that people have a breaking point. You will begin to respect their space and privacy. You will begin to understand that there are real differences between people, and those differences are not just in how we dress, but in our value systems.
Well-traveled people understand that open borders do not work. Because while the vast majority of people in this world have tolerance for others (at least the non woke), they’re only willing to entertain you for so long. And they certainly don’t want millions of white Sumner’s moving into their Arab and Asian communities.
Land is scarce. Resources are scarce. Not everyone can live in Qatar, Boracay, Miami Beach, and Venice. Just like not everyone can immigrate to the U.S., to England, to France, Italy, Japan, etc.
11. February 2024 at 10:05
Everyone, I’m surprised how many people have trouble figuring out when a post is meant as a joke.
TGGP, If you read my Econlog post, you’d discover that I don’t believe the Gulf states success is due to oil, it’s due to an efficient economic model.
11. February 2024 at 16:37
Scott, perhaps you should come to Singapore next? (Mostly I just wish we had fewer stroads [sic], and the weather was cooler.)
Edward, are you projecting much? I noticed that the people living in places with the fewest foreigners tend to be the most xenophobic.
In any case, if you think there are negative externalities when they come over, you should just tax them, not ban them. That applies to both tourists and migrants.
11. February 2024 at 18:52
It’s a pretty good observation, but they’re not immigrants. They’re on short term work visas. I think with good behavior the visa can be extended. And they allow permanent residency (not citizenship) after like 20 years of working there. Also, Colombia and South Africa are very multicultural. Neither one is affluent. South Africa is about to elect a President that wants to “kill the boers” which means kill the white farmer. The Colombians are desperately trying to keep out Venezuelans because they lower the wages. People have a very strong affinity for their ethnic group. Irish Americans still identify a hundred years later as Irish. Jewish Americans identify with Israel. Africans in france identify with their african country of origin. America has a Somalian congresswoman who explicitly stated on video that she wants to rebuild Somalia with U.S. tax dollars so that she can return home to her country. Mexican Americans still identify with Mexico. The Indians in the UK still identify with India. It’s probably in our DNA. Immigrants should be controlled, and work visas should be preferred so it doesn’t create too many pressure groups.
The late Henry Kissinger said it was a ‘grave mistake’ to allow so many immigrants with different values into western countries.
12. February 2024 at 05:03
Matthias, I may get there again someday.
Adam, You said:
“The late Henry Kissinger said it was a ‘grave mistake’ to allow so many immigrants with different values into western countries.”
I don’t get this. You cite the ties of the Irish, Jews and Mexicans to their homeland, but in the end these seem like pretty patriotic groups. I think this fear is overrated. In contrast, the two groups that have the hardest time integrating into mainstream American society are blacks and Indians, neither of which are immigrants in the ordinary sense. (Yes, there are a few recent black immigrants from places like Nigeria, but they do pretty well.)
12. February 2024 at 10:04
I had already read your EconLog post where you said the monarchies were avoiding certain errors. That’s fine as it is, but doesn’t seem to be the same thing as whether they are “backward” or not. In macro there is often a discussion of “frontier” vs “catch-up” growth. The former is more difficult, because we don’t know in advance how to make progress. The latter is more a matter of imitation of someone else who has already made progress, although to be fair not every country can pull that off (many stay “developing” for a long time without making much actual progress). It’s not my impression that others are imitating any “progress” made in the Gulf States. Instead the reaction to Neom was folks saying that every technical expert brought in to work there mock them for stuff like “Project Red Lines“.
13. February 2024 at 20:14
TGGP, Neom seems like a boondoggle, but I found the three states I visited to be pretty impressive.
14. February 2024 at 11:00
I am not a racist. I despise every religion equally as well. However, muslims are the most intolerant racists I have ever come across. And if you live in the world of LBQTGJM (or whatever it is), you have no chance…..So it amazes me that the Palestinians are getting so much love these days from that segment of society.
14. February 2024 at 21:09
Steve, Why do you think that people would be interested in reading your views on muslims?