Wealth is relative to the cost of living. $2,000 per month allows you to live a lavish lifestyle in some countries, but in the US it makes you barely capable of getting by. Americans on average have a lot of money (the US has one of the highest average incomes in the world), but that doesn’t mean that they’re rich. People who say that Americans are rich probably don’t understand the difference between absolute wealth and relative wealth.

Alice,

It’s a complicated question actually, because what is the definition of rich or poor? By US standards, someone who makes $30,000 is barely lower-middle class, especially if they are older than 30, but in much of the world that level of income makes someone rich.

There are Americans who are poor by global standards, but for many others it depends.

Edited for typo.

It's both a myth and a fact.

It's a fact that the US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with one of the highest per capita levels of income, though not everyone in the country benefits from that average ; many are well below it. So it's a myth since not everyone in the US enjoys a privileged lifestyle ; many people don't, even by average global standards.

Much the same can be said of many other Western countries.

Of course, material wealth is not the same as quality of life, and there may be many countries with a higher score on this basis than the US [or the UK].

Well, if you would ask a foreigner like me, Americans seem rich because of the exchange rate. If you're talking about Philippine standards, $1 = 50 PHP but it's just a myth that all Americans are rich. Americans may not be rich according to the US' standards but they are compared to the rest of the world. Wealth is relative

I've had multiple private messages over the last two years from people on Italki (from other countries) that say that all American's are rich. That we all get paid a lot of money. Even some members that live in the US also say that this is a country where everyone has a lot of money.