US GDP per capita is some $10,000 higher than Germany's(on a PPP basis, though the nominal numbers are similar). There's a lot of room for those who are poor by American standards to surprise you with how well-off they are by comparison to Germans. For example, Mississippi, the poorest state in the US, is better off than big chunks of Germany(and not just the East), and is still above the OECD median. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_regions_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita