> you would need to get, like, 10 $5,000 bounties a year to survive in the US wouldn't you?
More like 2 $5k bounties a year for me. Where I live in the U.S., I could rent a house for $500/mo ($6,000 a year), and I eat about $200 of food per month ($2,400 a year). So the cost of living per year is $8,400.
But yes, it entirely depends on where you live. For me, I specifically chose this place so that I could live comfortably on bug bounty income