>>1884283>Do you think people commute for the fun of it?I think people commute because they made a utility-optimizing decision and decided X-minutes or hours of commuting was worth the benefits (financial and general well-being).
I also think many, many people did not actually make the optimal decision, whether because of inadequate information or because of the unpredictability of life. And now they are miserable about how many days/months/years of their life they are spending in their car just to get to work.
While I have some pity for making a mistake, I also have no qualms about calling about bad decision making. Because most people make decisions based on intuition and random things they've been told about "how to succeed in life."
If people can't maintain a livable life on minimum wage, or on social assistance, that's a separate problem from housing.
Once people are earning enough to have a livable life, then I have no qualms telling people, "you have a choice between a more flexible housing arrangement that accrues less wealth over time but also risks very significantly less risk, or a less-flexible housing arrangement that accrues more wealth over time but puts you at very significant risk of your wealth or quality of life deteriorating based on factors completely outside your control."
Whether that's because the city decided to tear out a highway and your commute is twice as long now, or because your area was hit by extreme weather and your insurance is being a dick about it, or because your suburb is falling apart because no one in city government accounted for how to pay for infrastructure replacement 30 to 50 years after building it.
I know I looked at that shit and went, "No thanks, I'll take the rental." If I wanted to own real estate, I'll buy shares of a REIT.
