The Economy of Poverty

I grew up in one of those places, it's truly awful. Most of my life has been defined by the constraints and effects of that environment. Popular portrayals of "getting out" or escape are basically fantasies. There are no opportunities meaningfully available.

The only paths out require incredible foresight and near perfect discipline in the face of continual hardship, grief and trauma. Skills difficult for anyone to acquire and apply in their youth, and absolutely not provided by that environment. Even if you "make it" do you have the ruthlessness to abandon the family you're leaving behind, who did their best by you inadequate it may have been, who did nothing worse than fail in the ways you were expected to? A six figure salary doesn't go that far when you're paying for the kinds of medical problems your parents likely have in these places.

Almost everyone I grew up with either stayed and succumbed to one addiction or another, or left young with not much better results. Anecdotally the most reliable path out was to join the military and hope you make it through without a tbi or traumatic sexual assault to grapple with afterwards. The rest of us ran to the nearest big city with no plan which goes about as well as you'd expect.