I see a number of posts on reddit about what a current BTC fee can buy. It's usually something like a big mac, sub, or a beer. That's all and good but it's not what really matters. For most those things are luxury items. So lets take a look at some things more basic. Fees are way up today so to make things easy I'm going with a $5 tx fee.
Searching for info on how many people can be fed a meal with a bag of rice (1 kilogram) I came up with a range of between 10 to 25 people. Next I looked at what that bag of rice costs in different countries. In the US that bag of rice costs just over $4. That means a $5 BTC transaction fee could feed 12 to 31 people one meal. In Nigeria it's just under $2 so double that plus a little so say 25 to 64 people a meal. In India the cost is under $0.75. There a $5 tx fee could feed 67 to 167 people a meal.
Next lets take potatoes. Harder to find an answer for how much to feed a person a meal with these. Best I can come up with is a kilogram will feed about 4 people a meal. So looking at the potato chart US price is about $2.67, Nigeria $1.70, and India $0.40. So a kilogram of potatoes could feed nearly 8 people a meal in the US, 12 in Nigeria, and over 50 in India.
Now for all you beer drinkers out there lets check those prices. Going with .5 liter bottles of domestic beer. US shows $2.41 so that $5 fee will get you 2 beers. Nigeria is only $0.76 so a 6 pack with change. India at a $1.78 will get you almost 3.
So you can see that a high BTC fee could feed several people or buy a couple of beers for a person even in countries with high prices for food and beer. It's not about the luxury items like going out for a burger or beer at the bar. It's about what people in need can use to survive. Also keep in mind the prices aren't what you can actually buy things for. Shopping around I know you can get potatoes for $0.99 for a 3 pound and sometimes even a 5 pound bag. So under a dollar a kilogram.
The tx fees are crazy but the BTC price is rising. Apparently many people buy it anyway.