Everything is subjective - including which metrics we focus on and how we interpret them - since humans are inherently subjective beings.

I'd invite you to sit out at a cafe in Florence, or on a terrace in Amsterdam, watching the boats go by.

I'd then invite you to take a walk through the Tenderloin of SF, global hub of tech capital.

I've done both. I've lived both. I can tell you that as far as my subjectivity is concerned, there is a clear winner, numbers on a bank account be damned.

One more note: A society in which the poorest are seen as a "beyond help" and left with literally nothing is not a society I would feel comfortable living in. It is precisely those folks that need the most help to make society livable.