But the exercise of labor is the worker’s own life-activity, the manifestation of his own life. . . . He works in order to live. He does not even reckon labor as part of his life, it is rather a sacrifice of his life.

 — Karl Marx

My American neighbors imagined the United Arab Emirates as a vacation spot, and those who liked Las Vegas might feel at home in, say, Dubai, which likewise offered air-conditioned venues separated by traffic and hot sand. One hotel in Abu Dhabi was famous for its lobby’s ATM, which dispensed gold bars, and what my countrymen…