You’re missing my point entirely. Outside of the major cities, you could live decently (if a bit frugally) working 20 hours a week at $25/hour. The thing is that, generally speaking*, no one who pays $25/hour will accept less than 40 hours. It’s easy to get 20 hours at $8.25/hour, but then you starve to death unless you’ve got another source of income.
*Yes, I’m sure there are a handful of specialized cases where you can get paid a high hourly rate for 20 hours/week. They’re not at all commonly available, though, so please don’t dig one up and then declare my entire point invalid.
