That is 100% true. In Countries with great material wealth the majority of the country is spared a lot of the hardships and struggle to survive that those in poor countries do. Life used to be harder for people and frankly there wasn't as much to do.  2 of my four Canadian born grandparents lost siblings when they were in grades school and two of them lost a parent before they were 20. That kind of tragedy does not strike many Canadians now but for those Canadians born before World War Two that was very common. The majority were closer to the experience of death while they were young. They thought about it a lot more. They were closer to poverty too. They relied on onanother more and community and family were more important. Along with that came cultural traditions. When you are living at home until you are married, you are probably more influenced but tradition.