4 ms·

How is 5k per head enough? How many conscription age Egyptian males are there abroad?

by lordnacho 3y ago

bhouston 3y ago
Average yearly Egyptian salary is only 3.5K USD. The place is really poor.
- lordnacho 3y ago
  Yes but this is aimed at people who aren't in Egypt. According to the article. How many people are there abroad that they can contribute a meaningful amount of foreign currency?
  - umeshunni 3y ago
    Many people in this age group might be low skilled laborers, students etc. Especially since the majority of Egyptian expats are in gulf countries.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      Unskilled labor in the Gulf is mostly South Asian in origin (from poorer regions like UP, Bihar, Nepal, Northern Bangladesh, Sindh, Balochistan, Afghanistan). Egyptian nationals in the Gulf in 2023 now tend to work skilled jobs that require Arabic fluency like Medicine, Nursing, Teachers, Civil Service, Administration, Military, etc. It doesn't hurt that Egyptian degrees are relatively respected in Kuwait, Saudi, and a couple other Gulf countries.
- aquir 3y ago
  This must be a typo! $3.5k per year?
  - Tade0 3y ago
    I'll do you one better: I was making $8k annually as a developer a decade ago in my very much EU member country. I was getting shafted, but I learned that my co-worker lowballed and had $5k - I think this was below minimum wage at the time, but the employer took advantage of a loophole in temporary contracts. Back in 2003 $8k per annum was good money.
  - OmarShehata 3y ago
    Not a typo! This was my source: https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-egypt/ https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-egypt/ Also, that's not even like necessarily poor. A software engineer in Alexandria (2nd biggest city after Cairo) makes $5k annually (according to this https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/alexandria-egy https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/alexand...) and that matches my experience (from people I knew who worked in egypt ~5 years ago, adjusting a bit for inflation). Rent in a good apartment in a good part of town would be $160-ish a month.
notfried 3y ago
According to this [1], there are 9.5 million Egyptian expats, with over half of them in the Arab world, and less than 2.5 million in North America and Europe. So it could be they are targeting the majority, who are in countries not quite rich. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_diaspora https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_diaspora
- umeshunni 3y ago
  > majority, who are in countries not quite rich. It looks like the majority are in Saudi, UAE and Kuwait though.
- lordnacho 3y ago
  So generously, 1M of them would be conscription eligible, and if they all paid the 5K, Egypt would have 5B as a one-time fee. How is that going to help you run a government for 100M people? $50 bucks a head if they all pay.

How is 5k per head enough? How many conscription age Egyptian males are there abroad?

bhouston 3y ago

Average yearly Egyptian salary is only 3.5K USD. The place is really poor.

lordnacho 3y ago
Yes but this is aimed at people who aren't in Egypt. According to the article. How many people are there abroad that they can contribute a meaningful amount of foreign currency?
- umeshunni 3y ago
  Many people in this age group might be low skilled laborers, students etc. Especially since the majority of Egyptian expats are in gulf countries.
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    Unskilled labor in the Gulf is mostly South Asian in origin (from poorer regions like UP, Bihar, Nepal, Northern Bangladesh, Sindh, Balochistan, Afghanistan). Egyptian nationals in the Gulf in 2023 now tend to work skilled jobs that require Arabic fluency like Medicine, Nursing, Teachers, Civil Service, Administration, Military, etc. It doesn't hurt that Egyptian degrees are relatively respected in Kuwait, Saudi, and a couple other Gulf countries.
aquir 3y ago
This must be a typo! $3.5k per year?
- Tade0 3y ago
  I'll do you one better: I was making $8k annually as a developer a decade ago in my very much EU member country. I was getting shafted, but I learned that my co-worker lowballed and had $5k - I think this was below minimum wage at the time, but the employer took advantage of a loophole in temporary contracts. Back in 2003 $8k per annum was good money.
- OmarShehata 3y ago
  Not a typo! This was my source: https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-egypt/ https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-egypt/ Also, that's not even like necessarily poor. A software engineer in Alexandria (2nd biggest city after Cairo) makes $5k annually (according to this https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/alexandria-egy https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/alexand...) and that matches my experience (from people I knew who worked in egypt ~5 years ago, adjusting a bit for inflation). Rent in a good apartment in a good part of town would be $160-ish a month.

notfried 3y ago

According to this [1], there are 9.5 million Egyptian expats, with over half of them in the Arab world, and less than 2.5 million in North America and Europe. So it could be they are targeting the majority, who are in countries not quite rich. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_diaspora https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_diaspora

umeshunni 3y ago
> majority, who are in countries not quite rich. It looks like the majority are in Saudi, UAE and Kuwait though.
lordnacho 3y ago
So generously, 1M of them would be conscription eligible, and if they all paid the 5K, Egypt would have 5B as a one-time fee. How is that going to help you run a government for 100M people? $50 bucks a head if they all pay.