plenty that hold the "they're equals" view have some plausible to them explanation as to why. for instance, they claim that the countries have been ravaged by communism, or that intergenerational malnutrition lowers median iq too low to sustain a functional economy, or that they simply don't know why they are so bad, but they are, and they themselves would experience a major decrease in quality of life if being sent to these places.  a lot of people also have the "white man's burden" view of the matter, and that we need to care for the stupid. a plausible solution is restricting voting to home owners. this would mitigate the major problems of these demographics for the near future.
United States