Living in a large German city, I also never owned a car and didn't feel poor for the fact.
It's not "someone". It's the majority of the world's population. 150 years ago, it was all of the world's population, including the rich people.
Was everyone severely traumatized back then?
Lacking a car doesn't make one poor, and if you're growing up in one of Germany's largest cities (where one does not need a car to survive), you're already in an incredibly fortunate position in terms of lottery of birth compared to the rest of the people on the planet.
In no other circumstances would it be referred to in this way.
e.g. it’s like saying someone with above average work ethic is ‘lazy’, someone with above average intelligence is ‘stupid’, etc…
i.e. at a conference of neurosurgeons perhaps the vast majority of the HN userbase, including perhaps everyone commenting here, would be considered ‘lazy’ and ‘stupid’.
If it’s fine to refer to people in this manner, depending on their physical location, then I think it would have some pretty big implications.