As American I can understand what you say. I have been to Athens and far from being home of Western Civilization most of it could be some Middle East city minus the wars.
We get these poverty reports in UK. I ran into a charity trying raise money for homeless couple of days ago. The lady was firing off figures and I was like "lady you don't know what poverty is" Just go to Pakistan.
On that score trust me the Greeks are living it compared to Pakistan or India. You want the truth? Go visit and your going to be blown away with what you see as opposed to
numbers you read and
cherrypicking. Any country should be gauged by what exists on the ground.
Given that lets look at some reports.
India - Destitution
Pakistan - Destitution
Global MPI Interactive Databank - Country Briefings
This Oxford study is the most thorough report you will find out there. The approach is academic and uses multi dimentional variables to arrive at the final product.
People have no idea what "destitution" means. Notwithstanding the bluster and dazzle you hear and see the reality on the ground is terrible. That includes Pakistan. However if you think Pakistan is bad then you better get ready for India because it sets the gold standards for destitution. Hunger and lack of sanitation are the norm. So please do not compare with Greece.
Example of Pakistani slum - Karachi. All of sudden Greece does not look bad?
Example of Indian slum - Mumbai. Suddenly Pakistan does not look too bad.
So I never bother with these doom and gloom reports. Borrow a
s much as you can get. All I hope is some of that some of this borrowed money gets used in building infrastructure etc rather then all getting pocketed as we know some will.
Pakistan will never go the way Somalia went. It is too developed and too influencial in the world for that. Have you seen Mogadishu and compared it to Islamabad?
And finally observe this scene below. I want to people to think why would a person do this for a living? What sort of economic pulls and pushes force him to do this? What desperation drives him to this? What if you find out he is not alone but there are over
2 million like him?
Then you would have to question the society that forces so many to earn bread by working in this manner. You would have to question a economy that finds man cheaper then donkey. Well this economy is India. This society is India. This country is India.
And these are not some selective example of destitution but as common as 2 million times. This visible big Indian cities like in Delhi and Kolkata etc.
Man as Beast - India