The price inflexibility is deeply ingrained in housing prices, and the regulation by the state. No matter how desperate you are, you cannot legally work for as little as someone in many foreign lands.
Don't count on it. There is something about government that attracts and concentrates stupidity. They discount reality, blank out unintended consequences, operate with stolen wealth, and shift blame AND cost for its failure onto its victims. In that environment its almost impossible not to be terminally stupid.