Why is the rural Midwest "easier" to live in than the rural/suburban South?

[DC Al Fine]

Conventional wisdom would suggest

I'm sorry, but what conventional wisdom? Urban and suburban convictions of their own surpreme splendidness?

A lot of rural places have a surplus of jobs compared to their population due to natural resources. Housing and living costs are a lot cheaper so you get a lot further on a smaller income than you would in a big city. A family in the rural Midwest can live a comfortable middle-class life style on the same income that would leave a family in New York barely scrapping by. 

I recall a study that suggested that $100k in NYC would buy roughly the same lifestyle that $38k would in a small city in the South. If you're a service worker making not much over minimum wage, you'll stretch your dollars much further outside the major metros.

[DC Al Fine]

Come to think of it, smaller cities in the Sun Belt seem like the easiest places to live. Combine relatively low unemployment with low cost of living and you have a recipe for a healthy working class.

[DC Al Fine]

Conventional wisdom would suggest

I'm sorry, but what conventional wisdom? Urban and suburban convictions of their own surpreme splendidness?

A lot of rural places have a surplus of jobs compared to their population due to natural resources. Housing and living costs are a lot cheaper so you get a lot further on a smaller income than you would in a big city. A family in the rural Midwest can live a comfortable middle-class life style on the same income that would leave a family in New York barely scrapping by. 

I recall a study that suggested that $100k in NYC would buy roughly the same lifestyle that $38k would in a small city in the South. If you're a service worker making not much over minimum wage, you'll stretch your dollars much further outside the major metros.

If one actually paid rent to live in NYC and worked for the minimum wage, one would literally starve to death unless one did dumpster-diving.

As a rule, a high cost of living correlates with economic opportunities. The opportunities in New York City are far more varied than those in the Rural South. New York City is a tough place to live if one is not from there and is not at the top of his game.

On the other side -- what is so easy about making a living as a farm laborer? 

Who said anything about farm labor? I'm talking about small to mid size cities.