What is life like at the median global income?

By JP Addison🔸 @ 2021-06-30T14:09 (+51)

I recently learned from the Key EA Numbers Anki deck that median household income is Int$2,835, or $236 per month (methodology). I'm interested in some slice-of-life data about people earning about that much money. Imagine answering these questions for common archetypes of people at that income. If I imagine myself living at that income:

What type of food do I eat?
Do I typically own the land I live on? What's my house like? How many people do I live with?
How far away is the nearest city?
How do I make money, or am I subsistence farming?
What countries might I live in?
What impact has Covid had on my life?
How much money do I have tucked away for emergencies, if any? Do I have anyone I can depend on if I find myself in need?
What medical care can I get?

That's a lot of questions that might be difficult to answer, so definitely answer even if you only have information about one. I'm sure I'm curious about more than just those questions — I'd be happy if the comments were filled with all sorts of random related information.

Khorton @ 2021-06-30T14:27 (+59)

Dollar Street is great for visualizing this!

Here's a family in Jordan with a monthly income of $249: https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street?active=5fd03b43f2d9500e4358f313

And a family in the Philippines who earn $238 per month: https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street?min=169&max=285&active=5fd043b2f2d9500e435926ea

JP Addison @ 2021-06-30T14:39 (+1)

Thanks! That's very much the sort of thing that's helpful.

Josh Jacobson @ 2021-07-01T07:15 (+7)

It's been years since I read it, but I recall Poor Economics (https://www.amazon.com/Poor-Economics-audiobook/dp/B006ST3XTW/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1625123657&refinements=p_27%3AEsther+Duflo&s=books&sr=1-4) providing significant insight on life at lower levels of income; I think it was probably also informative about the median case.

DavidBernard @ 2021-07-01T19:33 (+4)

If a whole book is too much, you could also try their article, Economic Lives of the Poor - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.21.1.141 - but this is explicitly focused on people living below the extreme poverty line, who are an order of magnitude poorer than the global median.