Many years back here in Wilson NC, we had a delegation of representatives from an African country come here to see how we did things. They hoped to learn and carry the info home to use in their country.
They were given a tour of the "poorer" parts of our town, which is, in fact, quite poor. The delegates commented that what they were seeing was not poverty. In their country, what we called "poor" would be "wealthy" and a fine way to live that many would aspire to reach.
On a trip to Argentina, I had the opportunity to help build a church in a bario (neighborhood) where the average family has 4 to 6 or more children, lives in a one room house, and the family earns the US equivalent of $3 to $5 a day. The poverty there was unbelievable. However, that was put into perspective when I found out that the majority of the folks there were Bolivians who had come there to Hogar III because of the opportunity to make way more money than they ever could in their home country of Bolivia. Perspective..... it's all relative. To them I was like Donald Trump is to me.
This link on my website is a video of the trip and the bario I was referring to.
http://www.herbhartley.com/hh2_edited_slimmer_007.htm