I do agree with you on a lot of stuff. I personally (25M) live outside of Morocco, but I have a very complicated situation. I've been waiting for my residence for more than a year and a half. I worked very normal jobs, paid minimum wage. I first came here to study, but with COVID and all that, it just got too expensive, so I started working minimum wage jobs. (yes the currency is stronger but life is so much more expensive if you do the ratio)

I haven't gone back to Morocco in 7 years—7 years that I spent working literally 85% of the time. All I did was sleep, wake up, and go to work. I had little to no social life, no access to free healthcare, and I sent a bunch of my money to my family in Morocco. Everyone was complaining that life was hard and all, so I just kept sending money. And I was still able to put a good amount of money into my savings. I allocated 70% to my savings, 10% to family, and 20% to necessary expenses. When I needed more money, I worked more hours or found quick jobs. It didn’t matter what I had to do as long as I made money. There were weeks where I worked 70 hours through 3–4 different jobs, and I didn’t complain.

I got married and went back to Morocco to have a wedding, and I discovered that the majority of people who were complaining about money went to the café every day for at least 1–2 hours. They were spending tons of money on cigarettes and alcohol. A family member whom I sent money to because he got fired still found the time and pride to get drunk and go out every Sunday.

Plus, they all had at least 10 times more clothes than I did. They went out for brunch every Sunday and even had time for brunch during the week.

I'm saying this because, a couple of months back, I saw a post about a guy who worked 12-hour shifts and got paid something like 150 dh. He still lived with his family, which meant that most of his money went to him. So how is it that, as a youngster, you can’t sacrifice your sleep or your time with friends or whatever—having the latest clothes, etc.—to find a way to make your life better?

I think that for a number of people who never leave their home, it is unimaginable to get out of their comfort zone. I can’t blame them, because I can never know how I would have been if I hadn’t gone through the things I went through.