I suspect the person you’re responding to is not really talking about truly low paying jobs - more likely entry level out of college jobs. (Not that I expect those are in aggregate underwater either.)
I remember from even better days than today, but the entry job out of college had become an unpaid internship.
Which effectively limited them to people that already had very stable and financially supportive family situations.
Part of the reason that class mobility is going down. Although I think most of the production in class mobility is due to the disappearance of the high paid blue collar job in manufacturing
Supposedly manufacturing will be re- onshored in the next decade depending on who you talk to. So the tide may be turning?
