Agreed, that's an extremely high quality of life! I was thinking of a working class lifestyle in the USA, whose lives would include all of the points I mentione

Agreed, that's an extremely high quality of life! I was thinking of a working class lifestyle in the USA, whose lives would include all of the points I mentioned (driving a barely running clunker, eating cheap food from a discount grocery store, etc). Residents of the global south live much less energy intensive lives, but that comes at a cost: they don't have lifestyles of the developed world. When masses of working class people in developed countries hear 'we need to reduce energy consumption', they fear that third world poverty will be forced on them because of the points I mentioned. Increasing costs justify their fears. That might be why climate proposals haven't gotten as much traction that many would have hoped.