We Live Comfortably Because Others Don't

I grew up in one of those in-between countries. You know the type, decent schools, young people, but most people are broke (by western standards). Then I moved to Northern Europe. One of those places that always tops the "best quality of life" lists. And yeah, it's nice here. Really nice. Healthcare works. Streets are clean. People have time for hobbies. It's the kind of place that makes you think, "Why can't everywhere be like this?" Then it hit me: everywhere can't be like this because this only works if everywhere else isn't. Northern Europe wouldn't exist without Bangladesh. Without Niger. Without all the countries we don't think about.

The clothes we wear, the phones we use, the coffee we drink, the fuel we burn, it all comes from somewhere. And that somewhere is usually a place where people work for pennies under conditions we'd never accept for ourselves. We get cheap stuff, they get exploitation. That's the deal. It's like having a really clean house because you shoved all the mess into a storage room. The house looks great, but only because the chaos is hidden somewhere else. And then we have the nerve to get mad when people from the storage room try to enter the main house. "They're illegal." "They don't belong here." "They're taking our jobs."

How is that fair? These people aren't asking for a handout. They're asking for the same opportunities we have, opportunities we got partly because their countries stayed poor. We extracted their resources, paid starvation wages, destabilized their governments when it was profitable, and now we act offended when they want a better life. If we actually wanted everyone on Earth to live like we do in wealthy countries, we'd have to give things up. Real things. Smaller homes. Less shopping. Fewer flights. Higher prices because we're not relying on cheap labor anymore.

But that's not happening. The system is designed to keep things unequal, and those of us benefiting from it aren't interested in changing it. Here's the worst part: We don't even let them develop on their own. Foreign aid comes with strings attached. Loans force them to gut public services. Trade deals favor our corporations. And when a country tries to prioritize its own people over foreign profits? Suddenly there are sanctions. Or coups. So fine, don't help them. But at least stop ruining the planet while you're at it.

Because the countries that contributed almost nothing to climate change are the ones getting hit hardest. Floods, droughts, crop failures, all consequences of our industrial excess. And when climate disasters force people to migrate, we build walls and call it a "crisis." As if we didn't create it. We talk about equality and human rights, but the system is rigged. We hoard opportunity and then act confused when people are desperate to get what we have.

People born in the Global South aren't less worthy. They're not less capable. They just lost the birth lottery. And the fact that we're okay with that, that we've built our comfort on their suffering and then resent them for wanting better, says everything about how the system really works. It's not broken. It's working exactly as designed. We just don't like admitting who it's designed for.