Well, that explains things

This from the Gates of Vienna blog:
"According to the ancient Chinese, the goal of a civilized man was to attain virtue. 'Virtue' can be defined in various ways in different times and places — it might by measured by the number of cattle one owns, or by the height of one’s castle towers. Virtue might lie in excessive philanthropy, or in martial prowess, or in successfully controlling the females in one’s family. In the modern capitalist West, virtue is often measured by money, either directly as shown by a bank balance, or indirectly by the visible signs of wealth, such as expensive goods, real estate, servants, perquisites, and privileges.
As de Tocqueville pointed out, in a society based largely on slavery, engaging in labor is an emphatically non-virtuous activity. A man’s status is measured by how little work he has to do, because work is done by slaves. Thus any free man who has to work for a living occupies a decidedly inferior position. Uncoerced labor becomes dishonorable, and in such societies frivolity, indolence, and inactivity become the norm for anyone who is not a chattel.
This may explain the presence of huge numbers of 'guest workers' in the countries of the Persian Gulf. In a normal country, the arrival of all that oil wealth would have bid up the price of local labor and allowed native workers to raise their standard of living while developing the infrastructure in their countries.
But the Arab countries have a long history of slavery, which lasted from Mohammed’s time until the 1960s, and still continues today in many places in an unofficial capacity.
The natives of the region would damage their honor by engaging in so vulgar an activity as paid labor. Hence the ruling classes must bring in a vast labor force of foreigners, who work under near-slave conditions."