The Slim-Fast Indicator

I walked into a drugstore in Islamabad yesterday and noticed, in a proud stack by the cash register, a dozen cans of Slim-Fast. A few yards away, on the street, was a montage of Pakistani misery—street kids, homeless men, hunger. This might be an economic indicator in the era of globalization, though I’m not sure what it indicates. When a country as destitute as Pakistan begins importing a weight-loss drink, does it mean income distribution and the lifestyles of the rich and poor are dangerously out of whack? Or does the arrival of strawberry-flavored Slim-Fast mean Pakistan is inching up the ladder of prosperity? Or both?