You had me until you said "they pay us more because we could not live off anything less". You are exactly correct. If a company couldn't afford to pay us a living wage to employ us, here in this country, then they wouldn't employ us. And we sure wouldn't agree to work for a wage that has us starve to death in 3 months. The problem is, what you are saying, is exactly what I said... they base pay off currency value. Some guy in China can afford to work for 50 cents a day, because in China that 50 cents (expressed in U.S. currency) has much more buying power than it does here. So to us it seems like they are working for an appallingly insufficient amount, but clearly its enough to support them.
Currency differences, not work ethic.