I mean, cost of living is higher than america than other parts of the world and other parts of the world have state-funded security programs that take some of the anxiety away from living.

Here in (western) europe I'd wager at half of people (including me) are insulated from "poverty induced misery". There are an awful lot of stupidly big and expensive cars on the road.

Am I glad that ~400 million (200 mill in north america, 100 mill in europe, 100 mill everywhere else) people now live in that state of relative freedom? absolutely, but it is depressing to think about what a minority of humanity it really is.

I feel like the mean is rather skewed in the US. It's almost certainly less than half that are insulated.