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That seems quite insightful, thank you. I did finally reach Bangkok after writing my initial post, and it's a boring normal Asian city, without any freaks and geeks I could make a point of pointing out.
I could shed some light on the behavior of the rich in India. In living memory, my immediate family broke through from from upper middle class to lower upper class, if that's a sensible delineation. That means that we could afford BMWs or a million dollar house if we wanted them (the housing market in India is absolutely fucked in larger cities like Mumbai, so the idea of a million dollar house isn't even that big of a deal). Hell, we're staying at 5 star hotels now, which wasn't something we really did when I grew up. While I don't quite move in the strata of the uber wealthy, I can more or less make a decent assessment:
Wealthy Indians are accustomed to tragedy of the commons in every sphere of public life. Immense wealth will buy you a lovely mansion, but nothing will get you a clean city outside.
As such, we're calibrated in a manner such that when considering our relative social standing, we simply don't put much weight on the exterior of our residence, while lavishly decking out the interiors is something we can all agree upon and enjoy.
It's so ingrained in our culture that it takes a culture shock on the order of moving out of the country, where such things are taken seriously, for us to really change.
Have y'all tried home owners associations for general upkeep, and getting a specifically funded unit of local cops to fine anyone littering or otherwise dirtying the place? (or mob to harass...)
It's a country of 1.4 billion people, I'm sure someone somewhere has tried everything under the sun!
That being said, HOAs aren't common for privately owned detached houses, they are however, a thing in apartment complexes, and such gated complexes are usually significantly cleaner.
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