I grew up incredibly poor in a demuncipalized neighborhood.

outhouses, flour sack clothing

For a good chunk of my childhood, this was the case. Not flour sack, but making our own clothing out of scraps from donations since they often didn't fit.

satellite television

That was seen as pricy growing up. Mostly was just public access.

dengue, yellow fever

COVID-19 fucked an entire generation or even two to come.

lead posing, asbestos

I started facilities maintenance work at 16 and was exposed to both at that age.

laboring as children on farms in steel mills/cotton gins

I have been working since I was 13 starting off as a carnie. Seen some interesting shit this way at a young age.

workers comp, social security, food safety inspections

We basically don't have any of this anymore. Significant cuts/defunding to all of these or complete abolishment of regulations for the latter.

vaccinations

Oh god, don't even get me started.

I think most of us Westerners have had it pretty soft

Some of us did. There are inherent benefits to growing up in the west and the advantages that you take from it are given to you just by the merit of the cost of living you have subsidized by the extraction and exploitation of the third world. There are entirely disenfranchised, urban poor that are near third-world levels. In my case and in many others, this was in the NE of America. To add, I didn't have regular water, electricity nor gas service. Many cases without such for a month. Many people I knew growing up lived like this, "squatting".

Not to say that you don't have a point, you do. But when people tell me this kind of thing I just think of my own experience and ponder it even more.