People in the West are not poor by any reasonable standard. There is no poverty. But there’s no point telling people this. People in the West are precarious and anxious. Debt, unstable jobs, and constant consumer ads make people feel like they never have enough.
They also feel like they’re about to lose everything. This constant anxiety is extremely stressful and makes people feel poor and unfree. Telling them, as some idiots on the right do, that they are “rich as a 19th century aristo” is stupid.