I think the parent post meant that the relative difference in wealth is way more apparent in the US (vs in a third world country where all your neighbours are poor like you would be).
But yes, in absolute terms, i would rather the sort of poverty in the US than the sort of famine in parts of africa.
The ginii coefficient measures the inequality inside countries.
Compared to most of the world, the US has indeed more inequality.
But there are some places (i.e Brazil and South Africa) with much higher inequality, where the wealth of some and the poverty of others are much more juxtaposed and in your face.
That's an understatement. Being poor in the US (by the official US definition) is better than being poor almost anywhere else.
This paper goes so far as to argue that, in many ways, the average poor American lives at the same level or better than an European middle class person:
But yes, in absolute terms, i would rather the sort of poverty in the US than the sort of famine in parts of africa.