[lambdadmitry]

Most (all?) people on incomes like that practice subsistence farming and/or natural economy.

Also, state pension for many Russians (and Russia usually isn't considered a very poor country) is in the range of $130, which is just about twice higher. Add the fact that private pensions are very rare there, and you can see how thinking that that's "absurdly low" is a pretty privileged position.

[axegon_]

I live in a country which is similar standards to Russia in that regard(say hi to the origin of your alphabet), so it's definitely not from a privileged position. Yeah, I make magnitudes above the average but that hasn't always been the case - growing in the 90's in a family which was considered a state enemy until the end of the communist regime is anything but privileged, as you can probably imagine. I've been in positions where an additional expense of 25$ seemed as distant as 1 billion. 130 may not seem all that different to you from 57 but to those with 57 in their pockets, 130 look worlds apart. Farming and natural economy is only applicable in rural areas. With the ongoing global urbanization, this will likely become more and more rare in the following decades, granted we recover from the effects of covid eventually, which I kinda doubt at this point.