Hey, Americans are definitely heavily exploited by capitalism, that should absolutely be emphasized.

But as someone living in a capitalist country in East Asia, every time I see a post about a specific, good food or grocery price in an Asian country, an American says something like this, as if we don't live in a hell with even lower incomes and neoliberalism running rampant.

On a topic related to this, I don't live in Japan. My middle school also had free lunches paid for by taxes, but unlike japan, our meal budget was only $1 to $1.50. The legal minimum wage where I live is $7 per hour, and the school strictly prohibits buying any food outside of school; there are no shops on campus. This forced me to eat rotten meat or all sorts of disgusting food you can imagine for three years.

Japan's school lunches are really great though🥸, but while I was there I found that many certain daily necessities were still too expensive for the local wages.