The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.
There's constant inflation. 20k doesn't buy you the same amount of value that it used to. It also depends on where you live. Many jobs require you to move to big cities were rent is expensive (fully remote opportunities are hard to get in practice). Also, it's difficult to buy a house in this economy as they cost much more than they used to relative to salaries.
The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.