As Annah points out, with figures, the problem in the US is the habit of sueing everyone.
A few years ago, some British TV presenters went to the states, bought a car and drove around to see a bit. They intended selling the car before flying home. But they ended up in New Orleans and took pity on a homeless family so they gave the car to them. Next thing they know they have a law suit because they said the car was a 94 model when it was actually a 93.
OK, that's extreme, but that's the problem.
The reason Thialand is so cheap is because they run their economy on a low exchange rate system. They don't produce enough locally which can sell on the world markets so they can't earm a lot of foreign currency, especially Dollars and Euros. So, they maintain a low exchange rate so that what they do produce will sell.
It's a bit difficult to get your head around this but local people, in places like Thialand, actually earn about the same, in numerical terms, as anyone else, taking into account the relative values of their base currency. Costs are distorted by the artificially low exchange rates.
The reason they don't produce enough locally to sell on the world markets is down to corruption. However corrupt we in the likes of the US, the UK, Europe, Australasia think we are, this pales into insignificance compared to the endemic corruption that exists in most of Africa, Asia, S America and all of Russia, where corruption is part of daily life. A few years ago, In Bangladesh, the students went on strike demaning the right to cheat in their exams. Again, an extreme case, but indicates the realities of the problems. And that the cultural nature of it.
