> I don't think anyone growing up in developed countries can emotionally understand that, even though there's high competition for great universities, top jobs, etc., you can still live a very fulfilling and decent life without getting into Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Oxford, and so on. That's not really an option in poorer places, you either make it or you will live in some limbo where you earn enough to sustain yourself but don't have access to much else, it's a constant state of surviving to work without seeing upwards mobility.

I'm from Poland. 20 years ago, a friend of mine went to US for the summer to do menial jobs (we were both students at the time) and came back with all sorts of stories. His biggest shock though was "OMG I lived next to this guy who was a postman, and he could live a completely decent live on just his postman salary!". Whereas, in Poland back then, with 20%+ unemployment and depressed wages that come from that, you needed to be extraordinary just to be able to afford an ordinary life.