[0]: https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percen...
In general, I'd argue minimum wage jobs aren't anymore a stepping stone to some sustainable good job; they're basically viewed like consumables by companies. Even someone with a decade of experience, say, at several retail stores or restaurants, can't expect to be offered a position making $50,000 a year plus benefits just for having done his job well every day. By contrast, a dedicated factory worker with a decade of experience 50 years ago could expect to have advanced somewhat, and would expect continued advancement. Today everyone working in retail, restaurants, etc. all know that if they're going to do any better it's going to be by leaving that sector, via learning a trade, going to college, or perhaps founding their own small business. All things which were good options in the past too, but advancement was once a realistic expectation too.
The only situation I can imagine would be if the wife has a government job with extremely generous health insurance subsidies.
There’s always another appointment lined up before and after mine, so I guess he’s pulling 6 figures without much sweat.
I live in the principal city of the local Metropolitan Statistical Area; it's by no means a big city, but it's representative of many small cities around the country. My barber lives out in the county, outside of city limits, where it is much more rural and one can indeed buy 10 acres for not a whole lot of money.
I believe his wife is a schoolteacher; I don't believe public employee benefits are especially generous in this state.
Ask them what their deductible/oop max, and how they get that insurance, and I bet you will have your answer for how your friend can afford to raise a family of 4 as a barber and buy and live on 10 acres of land. I doubt a 2 barber couple could pull it off. The security/benefits of one half of a couple being a government employee is pretty valuable.
Bet you can get the same for less than $20 within 3 miles (and possibly far less).
I paid $10 for my last haircut ($6 two months ago - thank you, Joe Biden). Luckily there's another shop nearby that still charges $5.
I’m not just paying for a haircut, it’s an experience that’s worth every penny.
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.
Only in certain places, and only mostly due to crazy policies that made housing ridiculously unaffordable. I'm in an area where my barber lives on 10 acres of land he didn't inherit and together with his wife raises two children. This type of relaxed life is possible to do in wide swathes of the country outside of the tier-one cities that have global competition trying to get in and live there, as long as you make prudent choices.
I think 20- to 30-something engineers who have spent their entire adult lives in major coastal cities have a huge blind spot to how middle America lives.