This is fascinating.

Definitely some perspective on things. I don't really make any more money than these people, and I'm a single gay man living in a major city--facts that cut both ways as far as my economic situation goes.

And yet--I'm fairly well-educated, and generally do not partake of the hopelessness expressed in the article. Partially because I live in a relatively prosperous city with a relative wealth of opportunities, and partially because the folks in my family tree have done more-or-less what they wanted to do and lived fairly comfortably for several generations now. Stuff like that affects (if it doesn't determine) your outlook--total failure seems like a distant possibility, even if it isn't.

There's a part of me that's attracted to the gothic, extravagant decay of places like the towns in the article. Over the last four or five years, I've looked at a few job opportunities that would've taken me to strange small(er) towns. Never got anywhere near pulling the trigger, but thought about it, imagined it. Maybe.