Americans blah blah blah...
there are very poor countries where even the 2-3-5 cents are actually money that one can do something in their life, like buy something to eat.
Your cranky/jealous/hater stereotyping/generalizing about North Americans ignores the reasons *WHY* we have come to enjoy such supremely comfortable lifestyles. Pro tip: 1st world status is earned, not handed out like free candy at a pinata party. Hint: Culture is a form of technology.
Prosperous countries will typically be those who have a very good ratio of resources divided to a population. There is also an alternative combination where a country has a very large service sector (usually financial services or something to that effect) inflating their GDP, which is in turn distributed to a small population.
You can see the prosperity pattern in countries like Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland (financial services), oil-rich arab states, etc.
Large populations compared to available resources is what will -typically- lead to poverty. When you have hundreds of millions to billions with finite resources => you have serious problems.
Please support your assertion that 2-5 cents will buy something to eat.
Where in the world can you buy a snack for 5 cents? AFAIK not even Thailand/Cambodia/Nepal/India have such cheap food. IIRC 35 cents is about the lowest you can go for a meal's worth of calories.
If you know better, share the specifics and I'll update Numbeo accordingly.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/food-price-comparison-around-the-world/#!fullscreen&slide=988845
That's ~3 cents per egg btw (for India).