I find it quite hard to get a clear picture of what the income numbers in Gapminder's Dollar Street tell. How to compare \$27 in Burundi with \$10,098 in China? What would it mean that the family in Burundi is 500 times "poorer" than the family in China?
There are two aspects that are unclear to me:
Wouldn't it be a better measure (than income is) to quantify how much of the money one needs to lead a "normal healthy" life one has at ones disposal (in percent)? How is this measure called?
What about self-suppliers (what many families in poorer countries are)? They own and need less money (income) than others do, but how is the value of their self-supplying work measured?
In the context of self-supply: Wouldn't "belongings" be a better measure than "income"?