> might be referring to Malaysia, Thailand, Indo or the PI
The GP is Bangladeshi. The median Bangladeshi is not an English speaking Dev, and that is probably skewing GP's view - same way how plenty of Devs here in the states think it's common to travel to Japan or Europe multiple times a years or afford $3k in rent.
You can take tap water safety for granted across the US (and why stuff like Flint becomes such a major news story). You can't across much of Asia.
> might be referring to Malaysia, Thailand, Indo or the PI
Doesn't make sense in either of those countries either. Once you leave the capital city and go to Kelatan, Isaan, Aceh, or Mindanao stuff gets pretty bleh (despite the massive strides made in human development).
You won't see open sewers in Turlock or Volta, but you absolutely will in equivalent small towns across SEA (excluding Singapore). Furthermore, while the governments there might provide some welfare, it's not at the same level as the US nor is quality the greatest.
And housing affordability sucks in all those countries as well - just like the US. Sure a 2 bedroom apartment might be $300-400k at most, but median salaries are also around $3-10k (depending on the country).
There's a reason why you see the median Indo, Thai, or Pinoy working as a migrant laborer in the Gulf, or the median Malaysian attempting to migrate abroad to Australia, UK, etc.
The average SEAian isn't going to be a English fluent programmer (the target demographic on HN), so what OP thinks is middle class might actually be that country's upper class.
It's the same way you see Indian techies making $20k a year calling themselves middle class when the vast majority of the country makes less than $5k a year, or the tech bro on HN saying $300K TC is middle class.
Your overall point still mostly stands, but per capita GDP isn’t super helpful when talking about middle class Americans because of wealth inequality. The median US income is less than half of that. And the cost of living in Bangladesh is probably something like a quarter of the COL in the US. So while there’s still a pretty stark difference in wealth, it’s not quite as stark as you’re implying.
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP): This adjusts for cost of living and inflation rates between countries, giving a more accurate comparison of living standards.
In 2023, GDP per capita in terms of PPP for Bangladesh and USA was $8,242 and $74,578 respectively (per World Bank).
It is hard to compare one country to another because they are different in so many ways. Each has positives and negatives.
Clearly the USA and Bangladesh are different. Comparing their GDP is simplistic and doesn't really speak to quality of life in either place. Much less does it take into account that two people in each country may in turn have vastly different quality of lives.
In short, using national statistics tells us very little about your life, or my life, or any specific persons life.
The person I responded to (correctly) criticized per capita GDP, citing differences in cost of living. I felt that referencing PPP would be helpful since it attempts to factor in cost of living differences.
I'm not sure this "comparisons are hard" speech is adding much. Differences in wealth are real, measurable, and meaningful, even if they can't be boiled down to a single number. Obviously there are other factors to quality of life; nobody here stated anything to the contrary.
Poorer than people in Bangladesh? Unlikely. Bangladesh per capita GDP is 2,529.08. US is $81,695.19.