We're not given much choice.

You simply don't exist as an American without a car and a phone and internet and an address with your name on it. Anything below that is considered fringe, poverty or societal reject. Good luck getting a job without a smartphone and your own car, don't expect public transportation to be of any help, it doesn't generally exist outside the larger cities and what there is of it, often sucks and takes hours out of your day. Our "public" internet is mostly coffee shops who make you buy something to sit there using their slow-ass wifi. If you fall on hard times, you have to apply for aid, which comes with stacks of provisions, like having an address and a phone, and this kind of aid is only available temporarily and if you accidentally make too much money they will cut you off.

If you're savvy you can learn to use things like libraries and carpools and food banks and other resources for the needy. But it's really, really hard to get out of poverty once you fall down. Most institutions and companies that provide services of any kind charge you more and more the less money you have. You need to have over a certain amount in your bank or you pay fees. You need to pay your bills on time or they charge you twice as much, you need to keep a credit history maintained even if you're broke, because most employers include credit checks in their hiring process.

Most of the "middle class" you see here are suburban families working multiple jobs 6 days a week or more and are on average hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in debt. Two people working often requires two cars, now your monthly transportation costs outpace your living expenses. Have kids or want to have kids? Good fucking luck figuring out childcare or daycare and paying for that too, not counting the vast sums of money the delivery and hospital stay alone cost, even if you have insurance. It's okay, smartphones and tablets will raise your kids. Keep the machine moving.