To that end, we shouldn't also compare ourself to the richest of rich. If you are making $150,000 a year you shouldn't be middle class just because someone out there is making a million.
I think what the parent poster was trying to get at is people tend to lump themselves in the "barely scraping by" bracket, no matter where they actually fall on the economic ladder. It's easier to see the people who have things you don't than to realize what you have that others don't.
Does that mean that we should ignore the demands of workers who want a liveable wage of $15/hr in the US? Should we tell them "you're rich compared to most of the people in the world"?
The fact is that we measure "richness" by our immediate surroundings. If we have $50k in savings and we could move to Madagascar and live like a king doesn't mean we're rich, not even in the slightest sense.