I've also spent extensive time overseas, in various east Asian countries including Japan and China (Beijing, Hong Kong) with short visits to others (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia).

The image of middle-class Americans looking like rich people abroad is in rapid decline. If you are a middle-class American, get over there quick so you can experience what it's like before it's gone.

Let's start with Japan. There was a point, after WWII, where an American businessman could walk into a Japanese conglomerate and receive instant respect at the door. You could tell the level of admiration as Japanese women used to be instantly attracted to foreign men. Japanese looked to New York as a model city, although they had never visited. They only knew of the massive might of Western civilization from their WWII defeat.

Gradually, as the country became rich and successful, the image faded. Japanese now enjoy a GDP per capita that beats the European Union average, albeit still only 70% of the United States. Seeing expats around Tokyo became the norm. But foreigners from the West were no longer welcome at the fanciest members clubs, and Japanese adopted a more realistic view of the world from their extensive travel abroad. Businessmen struggled to negotiate deals as conglomerates like Sony bought prime New York real estate and the tables were turned.

Other countries in Asia aren't as far along with this process, but it's changing quickly. Let's take (mainland) China for example. Ten years ago being a foreigner meant hiring taxi drivers to personally wait on you all day - even on a student budget - and excellent chances in nightclubs of any first-tier city. For native Chinese, studying abroad and returning home meant an instant offer from a top-tier company, rock-star status, a fast path to owning an apartment and all the trimmings that entails like excellent marriage prospects.

These days, as the Western world stagnates, many of the Western oligarchs have chosen to send their money to Asia to invest, whether by choice or necessity to find assembly-line workers cheap enough to allow them to compete. The result is that enormous sums of money are flowing into China, and enormous sums are staying in China. Businessmen wire in what looks like small amounts of "real money" but thanks to the leveraged Western financial system they end up wiring in a significant portion of the American economy in real terms.

This means many of the Chinese are becoming rich very quickly. The government ensure this happens by strict rules such as under-50% foreign ownership of local companies. Women in first-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing are known to be very demanding - their men must purchase several hundred thousand dollar apartments to entertain love, or even multi-million dollar apartments at the top end - and this is beginning to apply to foreigners too. Can't afford an apartment? Forget it. As for foreign-educated Chinese, they return home from a place that caused the global financial crisis to a place where the local way is a global success story, entering the job race with a much smaller advantage.

This will eventually lead to the Japan situation, assuming the current level of growth. There are a lot of poor Chinese, so it will take some time. But it's only a matter of time.

Other regional countries like Thailand and Malaysia and the Philippines aren't at this stage yet, but if they don't hurry up the Chinese will make them vassal states and the local people will lose their respect for the West in that way instead.