As I complete my travels through Argentina and a layover in Lima I realize that differences between poor and rich are much less stark in my opinion in the US and these LatAm countries where the percentage of population living below the local poverty line is 3 to 5 times higher than that of the USA

So whatever you feel - it’s all relative

People don't realize that being broke poor in the US is a luxury life in most developing countries.

I'm not from the US but I saw some video of of how some homeless people live in the US, and it's a lifestyle most of the developing world would kill for: dumpster dive for freshly made pizza or quality supermarket produce that's still good just not legal to be sold anymore, all free of charge. If you have a medical issue, go to the ER and get top quality healthcare. Dumpster dive for perfectly usable clothes, computers, etc. That's a luxury life for 80% of the planet.

> That's a luxury life for 80% of the planet.

Not anymore, maybe 20 years ago but many nations developed a lot since then.

Yeah they have, but being broke poor in those developing nations sucks much more than in the US. Their development is mostly reflected in the lifestyle of middle and upper class not of the poor. You have no idea how good the poor in the US have it compared to large parts of the world.

You said luxury life, that is different than saying the poor in USA are better off than the poor in for example China. American poor don't live as well as luxury life in China.

Why use China? I’d rather be poor in the US than rich in DRC, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, eritrea, Somalia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Haiti, etc etc

Using the second largest economy which has many mega cities you can tour on Google earth and plenty of millionaires and billionaires isn’t really the right comparison. Like using Japan or Germany.

You said 80% of the planet, China + first world nations is much more than 20% of the planets population. If you said 50% it would have been different.

Did he say 80%? That’s definitely pretty high. China by itself is already about 20% of the world population.

The part I quoted was: "That's a luxury life for 80% of the planet."

So yeah he said that.

Well, 71% of the world’s surface is ocean and about 10% is desert. So that’s over 81% of the planet. I think we can now both agree that you are completely wrong and I am completely right.