As an immigrant from Russia who regularly visit US, I can relate your "low-end" class to Russian "middle". People called poor in US almost always own a used car, and often some cheap house or trailer. Poverty in Russia means no housing for a family (2-3 families live in one apartment), absolutely no car, which is already considered as middle-class privilege, struggle to buy food for the whole family and don't have access to social lifts to escape this kind of existence.