For the time being, strong family ties help keep destitution at bay for most of the down-at-heel.

ECONOMIST: Saudi Arabia on the dole

The town is certainly down at heel by comparison with the nearby capital, though it has a mildly exotic flavour in other respects, including five tattoo parlours on the main street.

ECONOMIST: Japanese immigration

Leave the glitzy heart of Riyadh or Jeddah, the two main cities, and you find down-at-heel suburbs where poor Saudis live side by side with poor Asian and African workers.

ECONOMIST: Saudi Arabia

There is not much to the village now: a few boarded-up houses, a couple of shops, a down-at-heel courthouse.

ECONOMIST: America��s highways