An American’s experience in Luxor made me write this. The story is long and vivid, but the core theme is how she and many other foreigners were duped into buying and then selling properties losing money in the process.

As someone who grew up in India and now lives in the US, I have noticed this disconnect.

People born in America, irrespective of their ethnicity, fail to understand the difference between natural and man-made laws.

One reason might be that Americans never rarely see either of them being violated.

In my native language, Hindi, the terms used are different, “Niyam/नियम” for natural laws and “Vidhaan/विधान” for man-made laws. While in English, both of these are called “laws”.

A natural law like gravitation is enforced everywhere by nature. No one can jump 20 ft from the ground to your rooftop in Luxor or Los Angeles. However, the law of private property is man-made. It is strongly enforced in the Western world. In the global south, the enforcement isn’t as consistent. New Yorkers might visit Arizona for a week, buy a house, and then disappear for months, that does not happen in other parts of the world. The protection costs a lot of money. And that’s why a water-facing villa in Los Angeles wouldn’t come for less than a million while the same house might be only $50,000 in Luxor. Those who know can pull off a 10X investment in Luxor. Those who don’t will lose it all.