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I work for a Japanese automation company and we’ve been getting a huge surge in projects in Vietnam. Some things here are definitely exaggerated. Birth rates i

by fiblye 7y ago

I work for a Japanese automation company and we’ve been getting a huge surge in projects in Vietnam. Some things here are definitely exaggerated. Birth rates in Vietnam are already below the replacement rate and dropping. Poverty is a colossal problem. People get paid a couple hundred bucks a month at major internationals. Cost of living is massively lower, but downtown apartments for average people (and not mansions for foreigners making average foreign wages) aren’t in a great state. Rather dilapidated, in fact. Streets are sometimes torn up and left wide open while construction is going on, turning on high energy electronics might trigger a localized blackout (had this happen with an AC at a restaurant near Hanoi), and outside urban cores, you’ll see many homes with 4 plain concrete walls and makeshift doors and ceilings. Dirt floors aren’t surprising. Roadside restaurants and cafes are just tents and shops are shoddily built shacks. That said, Vietnam is full of great people who are hopeful about their future. Progress is evident, but the poverty there is very real and the improvements aren’t equally distributed.

latchkey 7y ago
The amount of wealth here is absolute bonkers massive. Nobody realizes it. Sure there is a majority population living in shacks by the side of the road, but there is a huge huge huge number of people (and growing) in big houses and driving fancy cars. Even some of those shacks are owned by really wealthy people. They just haven't learned to show it off and they don't care about upgrading. I've seen it all, really. I've stayed in the fanciest hotels and the only place in the smallest village. I've been in such remote places that you don't see a single foreigner for days on end. What you describe is everywhere here. But fact is, you can't drive 100m anywhere in this country without seeing a house/shack with a baby (or ten) in front of it. The issues you point out about infrastructure is simply that the govt doesn't care about those things. The rich get richer and the poorer get poorer. I don't know of any other society that revolves around 'me me me me' as much as this one.

by fiblye 7y ago

latchkey 7y ago

The amount of wealth here is absolute bonkers massive. Nobody realizes it. Sure there is a majority population living in shacks by the side of the road, but there is a huge huge huge number of people (and growing) in big houses and driving fancy cars. Even some of those shacks are owned by really wealthy people. They just haven't learned to show it off and they don't care about upgrading. I've seen it all, really. I've stayed in the fanciest hotels and the only place in the smallest village. I've been in such remote places that you don't see a single foreigner for days on end. What you describe is everywhere here. But fact is, you can't drive 100m anywhere in this country without seeing a house/shack with a baby (or ten) in front of it. The issues you point out about infrastructure is simply that the govt doesn't care about those things. The rich get richer and the poorer get poorer. I don't know of any other society that revolves around 'me me me me' as much as this one.