"The fact about Asia is the wide gulf between rich and the poor. Credit in India is tightly regulated and only extended to those who can pay it back. Except in the case of Government, who do not need to pay it back since the people will.

"The consumer boom of the last ten years has been driven by IT related jobs. The IT industry put a lot of money into the hands of youngsters who did not know the meaning of bad times."

David Fuller's view I am not aware of any country where there is not a wide gap between the rich and the poor, except for the few remaining Marxist economies where everyone is poor.

When Eoin and I read your email we both commented on how we wish that credit in the west over the last 15 years had only been extended to those with a probability of paying it back.

I had a eureka moment on re-reading your last sentence. In terms of motivation and work ethic, people in emerging (progressing) economies are quick to seize their opportunities because they have mostly known difficult times. In contrast, people in developed (often regressing) economies have either too often known only good times, or been featherbedded by welfare safety nets.