If Aliens came to Earth...

I met this British guy Lou the other day who is a freelance film producer here in Cairo. What I remember most from my conversation with him was him telling us how teachers in Cairo are paid about 500 Egyptian Pounds per month, and that this is so little that they withhold teaching some subjects at school so they can teach private lessons for more money. When I got back to my room that night, I thought about 500 pounds a month, and that astounded me. I just can't see how it's possible for any individual, let alone a busy teacher, to be able to live in Cairo, rent an apartment, pay for food and transport, for 500 pounds a month. Then you look at the Egyptian students who are at AUC, the way upper class of Egypt who come to school chauffeured in BMW's and Audi's, and the concept of "income inequality" really becomes clear. While all the economic indicators show that there is a ridiculous income gap in the US, it is just so much easier to see such things in a country like Cairo (or India, Kenya, etc.).

Since I've been here, I've really thought about how strange this world might seem to aliens who randomly visited Earth. Teachers, perhaps the most important if not one of the most important groups of people in society who are primarily responsible for allowing us to progress, learn and innovate, are being paid less than a living wage, not only in Cairo, but even back home in California. On the other hand, there are people on Wall Street who take money from really rich people, invest it into an arguably "imaginary" system of ownership and equity markets, and through some series of events I don't understand become among the wealthiest in the world. The rewards just never go to the people or groups that are directly trying to help other people and groups. It just seems quite weird---I don't really know what to do about it or what one can even do about it, but I'm sure the aliens would probably be like, "later earth we're going back to our planet" (obviously if they can come to earth they are more technologically advanced, so they would probably like their own planet better anyways since it would have all types of awesome video games).