This problem is restricted to a tiny number of extremely poor towns in the South and Midwest. By no means is it a national issue. The US is a developed economy, that's a fact, and has one of the highest living standards in the world. In the US unlike developing countries, people can at least work hard, get a job and start improving their own lives. No one has to live like this. That's the advantage of the free market capitalism that the US is an example of.