I live in the EU now, coming from the US. The US is almost comically backward. The effectiveness of its propaganda is incredible, that the people living there really don't know what the rest of the world is like. Yes, I have been to Mexico. I've also been to towns in northern New Mexico where the majority of the population doesn't have electricity or phone service. I've been to countries where much of the population lived in poverty, but most of them they still had phones at least. I'd say the US is currently just above mid tier from the perspective of median income vs cost of living. In the developed countries I've been to, even when they have lower incomes, they at least have much lower cost of living to make up for it. The US has got to be the most expensive place I've ever spent time in, except maybe Denmark. So yes, income is high, but I doubt seriously that there are many places less affordable for median-income residents, at least in the developed world.