Surviving in different places in the world requires different amount of work.

If you live in Brazil or Cuba cold weather does not exist and you can wear a t-shirt swinsuit all year long and survive.

If you live in Germany,Japan, Norway or Boston you can't do that. You need to prepare for Winter, and not just you, but your house needs to be prepared, your means of transport needs to be prepared, and so on.

While Winter exist in SA, it is pretty mild for European, Asian or American standards.

Also in lots of places you could have a farm and you don't need to buy lot's of things if you just live a simple life.

And Africa is gigantic, with lots of resources for a population much smaller than Asia or Europe, and way younger.