You correctly point out the non-trivial nature of $1,900, including for many millions of Americans, based on duration just to earn the $1,900 in terms of income

You correctly point out the non-trivial nature of $1,900, including for many millions of Americans, based on duration just to earn the $1,900 in terms of income. It's even more dramatic than that however. The person earning minimum wage in Russia will never possess $1,900 in loose capital to spend on such a venture, as they don't have enough buffer beyond expenses to accumulate it. At $174 per month, saving 20% of that, it would take five years, and during those five years something would inevitably happen to consume the savings base (stray emergency need or other life event). It's one aspect of the brutality of being poor, whether in Russia or the US or wherever. You rarely have breathing room above basic life expenses to accumulate anything. Opportunity almost always has a financial cost associated with it, a get-through-the-door dollar cost (whether that's buying equipment, renting commercial space, or just affording the free time to do a thing). For the majority of the world $1,900 is more savings in terms of liquid cash (eg in a bank account), than they will ever have at a given point during their lifetimes. It's exceptionally hard for the majority of people to put that together.