Every now and again, if I feel I need more money, I take a look at http://www.globalrichlist.com/ and plop in my current salary. Though the numbers are probably a bit dated by now, it's quite sobering.
Well, every now and again, I come across this type of salary comparison charts, and realize that out of context they make no sense at all. And with some context - hmmm.. Nope, not much sense either.
I don't know what you're trying to say. If you are trying to imply that someone on a developer salary in Europe or the US are not well off by global standards, you're out of your mind.
I mean just what I wrote: these lists and charts comparing everyone to everything make little to no sense without context. Global standards in the vacuum make no sense. And in the case of global salary charts - well, comparing apples to oranges doesn't even come close. But, as much as I hate generalizations, I'll try to clarify my point. So: usually, above certain, and rather low level, your happiness doesn't scale linearly with the your wealth expressed in money, and the farther you are in the "rich" percentile, the more so. This charts tend to imply that wealth should (well, that it has to!) be distributed uniformly, when it isn't, and has never been, and I'm pretty sure will never be.
Now, let's suppose you make $15k/yr. (By the way, how's that for your estimate of a European salary? See why I said I hate generalizations?) This site says you're in the top 13% richest people in the world. Immediately, a ton of questions arises: OK, top 13% - what of it? Was it practical to take everyone in the world into consideration? Why and how should this (unverified) information change your feelings about your well-being? Is the current wealth distribution, as represented by the chart, really not OK? Will the knowledge about being in the top 13% help you pay your bills? Should you, now knowing that you are ahead of 87% of population, start to think about redistribution of your wealth and transferring it to those behind you? Should you not be pissed off by those guys higher than you? What if you'd find yourself in the lower 50%? Should you get depressed, or get to work, reaching the 50% mark and then stopping, or what? I could go on and on, but the point I'm trying to make here is that all those questions can be answered in a dozen or so ways, exact number depending on your will to participate in rhetoric battles, and that's why I just can't figure out how this chart can be of any use. There's probably some statistical value in it to me, but almost none practical value. I hope you now see what I was trying to say in the GP comment.
Lastly, and moving from the comparison chart itself to the idea that it's used to be backing up here: I dislike cheap attempts to make people participate in some charity out of induced guilt, and I dislike portraying of being wealthy (whatever that means) as a kind of being unclean with money and obliged to share as a tool of said shame/guilt feeling inducing. I don't think charity should work this way and I think this instills the wrong views of the basic principles of economical and social responsibility in the readers and just exploits the guilt feeling.
TL;DR: Do you need money? You should probably stop contemplating 'global salary comparison charts' of questionable real world value, and instead get your statistics straight and start working on your skills/paycheck/whatever keeps you wealthy. Do you want to participate in the charities? Stop getting anxious and building guilt inside you for no reason, get informed (really, get your statistics straight already) and get involved.
on the flip side, someone could create a list of where you rank on the cost of living, amount of free time, environmental health standards, living space, and so on. Suddenly a lot of us would find ourselves on the other end of the scale.
with that said, I do consider myself tremendously lucky, but when looking at such lists there are more dimensions to consider than just salary number.
