It’s really eye opening how big the gap is not just in labor costs but also perishable goods.

When I was in morocco 10 years ago one of the buckles for my motorcycle pants suspenders broke. I was able to get a local leather worker to create a pattern from the broken piece, craft the replacement, and integrate it into my suspenders overnight for under 5 USD. This was arranged by the hotel I was staying at, and wasn’t some special inside knowledge on my part.

The mass manufactured replacement were more than 10x that cost, and made of lower quality materials.

Morocco is not a rich country, but a lot of the world is even less wealthy.