I disagree. I come from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a population of ~125,000, comparable to the city of Lakewood, CO. A 2 bedroom ~700sqft. apartment in a safe/nice neighborhood cost me $8100/year. (I pay double that annually in a Denver suburb) One can easily get a level entry job paying $15/hour and live comfortable.The only thing declining in Cedar Rapids is the malls. The parks are nice, traffic is bearable, the roads are in great shape, a booming art district that makes the Sante Fe art district look pretty shabby, an international airport, and lots of big name employers like Cargill, General Mills, Allient Energy, Quaker Oats, Rockwell Collins, GE Commercial Finance and Archer Daniels Midland. My last job there was sitting in a cubicle doing tech support for a major hospital network at $40/k a year.

That's just one city, I'm sure there are many more cities out there. I do not think that the alternative is to "live somewhere that is horrifically depressed and in long term decline."