Would you rather be poor in Morocco or in the U.S.?

I have only been in Morocco about two weeks but I have started thinking about poverty and luxury in different ways. In Dallas, during AmeriCorps, I got to go on "home visits" to some of the families of the kids in my program. And these were some of the poorest people in America. (Average household income of $9,000 annually). And yet, they had showers, hot water, unit a/c, bedrooms, closets, and a place to do the laundry-- even if that was a laundromat quite a walk away. The poor in America even have cars, albeit, unreliable cars.

So then you think about the family I'm living with here in Morocco, who are poor, though not nearly as poor as some. We don't have a shower (because it's too expensive when all you really need to shower is 1/2 a bucket's worth of water.) , no hot water, we don't have any kind of A/C other than the "skylight" (re: open hole) in the ceiling, no way to do laundry but by hand, no stove, just a butane tank with a grill held over it, no trash pick up, no closets or wardrobes, just a cabinet with everything they own held within it, and definitely no car. They don't have much "stuff" at all.

So I can understand the moderate poor of the world wanting to go to the U.S. in search of ways to make life a little easier. (I don't think this entry applies to the absolutely and completely impoverished.) Why wouldn't you go if you had the opportunity? But here is where the decision is tricky: would you rather be poor in a country where everyone is poor, or poor in a country where you are obviously "without" and being poor is stigmatized and something to be ashamed of? In Morocco, more than 50% of the population is considered to be living below poverty. So my family, who is poor, is happy being is just a regular part of society-- there is no stigma attached to their style of living because that's how everyone is. Sure, they know they are without things like washing machines and showers, but so is almost everyone, so it's no big deal. That's life. I'm not sure which I'd choose.

[obviously this doesn't include any aspects of choosing to immigrate like health care, education, employment, etc. because I've only been here two weeks and don't know anything about that yet.]