Following the struggles of the poor societies that want to live in the advanced societies, as they have to pass through, The Process, as only 3% of them survive that phase.
The reason why 3% works so well... is that it feels more personal and emotionally driven, easing us into connecting with characters who eventually become far more than their pilot-episode characteristics.
The uneven but compelling 3% argues for hemispheric resonance by making a farce out of - and mining terrific suspense from - the myth of deserved affluence, the obvious corollary of which is deserved poverty.