The GP is Bangladeshi. The median Bangladeshi is not an English speaking Dev, and that is probably skewing GP's view - same way how plenty of Devs here in the states think it's common to travel to Japan or Europe multiple times a years or afford $3k in rent.

You can take tap water safety for granted across the US (and why stuff like Flint becomes such a major news story). You can't across much of Asia.

> might be referring to Malaysia, Thailand, Indo or the PI

Doesn't make sense in either of those countries either. Once you leave the capital city and go to Kelatan, Isaan, Aceh, or Mindanao stuff gets pretty bleh (despite the massive strides made in human development).

You won't see open sewers in Turlock or Volta, but you absolutely will in equivalent small towns across SEA (excluding Singapore). Furthermore, while the governments there might provide some welfare, it's not at the same level as the US nor is quality the greatest.

And housing affordability sucks in all those countries as well - just like the US. Sure a 2 bedroom apartment might be $300-400k at most, but median salaries are also around $3-10k (depending on the country).

There's a reason why you see the median Indo, Thai, or Pinoy working as a migrant laborer in the Gulf, or the median Malaysian attempting to migrate abroad to Australia, UK, etc.

The average SEAian isn't going to be a English fluent programmer (the target demographic on HN), so what OP thinks is middle class might actually be that country's upper class.

It's the same way you see Indian techies making $20k a year calling themselves middle class when the vast majority of the country makes less than $5k a year, or the tech bro on HN saying $300K TC is middle class.