How middle America lives, for a lot of people, is making within a buck or two of minimum wage, with virtually zero chance of significant advancement, trying to scrape together enough to meet your expenses. You might become assistant manager of the big box store, but that won't transform your life. The only way out is learning a skilled trade or certain college degrees (and likely leaving town).
This isn't specific to cities.
In fact, people in rural areas are worse impacted, because the rise of Walmart, Dollar General, and others funnel money out of their towns that would have otherwise enable many local families to capture the profits from local spending. Today a lot of that spending goes mostly to those companies, and only a fraction of the money stays, in the form of a few low-wage jobs.
I'm not saying it's impossible to not live in poverty. I'm just saying it's much much harder, because "advancement" is obsolete in a lot of occupations where it used to be a thing.
This isn't specific to cities.
In fact, people in rural areas are worse impacted, because the rise of Walmart, Dollar General, and others funnel money out of their towns that would have otherwise enable many local families to capture the profits from local spending. Today a lot of that spending goes mostly to those companies, and only a fraction of the money stays, in the form of a few low-wage jobs.
I'm not saying it's impossible to not live in poverty. I'm just saying it's much much harder, because "advancement" is obsolete in a lot of occupations where it used to be a thing.