7.6.4: Modifying the Model

 7.6.4: Modifying the Model To classify countries into Most Industrialized, Industrializing, and Least Industrialized is helpful in that it pinpoints significant similarities and differences among groups of nations. But then there are the oil-rich nations of the Middle East, those that provide much of the oil that fuels the machinery of the Most Industrialized Nations. Although these nations are not industrialized, some are immensely wealthy. To classify them simply as Least Industrialized would gloss over significant distinctions, such as their modern hospitals, extensive prenatal care, desalinization plants, abundant food and shelter, high literacy, and computerized banking. On the Social World Map, you saw that I classify these countries separately.

Table 7.3 also reflects this distinction. Table 7.3 An Alternative Model of Global Stratification 

Kuwait is an outstanding example. The government employs 90 percent of its working citizens, subsidizing their electricity and gasoline and giving them free education and health care. 

Citizens are also given free housing when they marry, although with the lower cost of oil, the government is cutting back on its subsidies (Domat 2019). 

Most of the grunt work that the nation requires is done by migrant workers from the poor nations, while skilled workers from the Most Industrialized Nations run the specialized systems that keep Kuwait’s economy going.