While there is some percentage of people so desperate they literally don't have any choice about where they can live, that doesn't describe most workers at least in developed countries. For a given rent, most workers have a choice to have more space at the expense of living in the suburbs and having a long commute, or less space and living closer to/within the urban core, such that you can get around on a bike if you want.
The latter aren't elite, they just make different choices.
There's also the phenomenon of disregarding car costs in choice of location due to lack of imagination about not needing one car per person
I know quite a few non poor people who moved to the suburbs or exurbs because they "couldn't" afford a single family home in cycling distance, then pretty much immediatly spend 60k on new cars because they need them to be reliable and then burn through like 300€ / month in operating cost for the commute alone at which point they would've had enough budget to level out the price difference.
They're mostly cool people, but a few of them definitely turned into carbrained I am the disadvantaged working class, those damn 2br apartment elite city slickers people
While there is some percentage of people so desperate they literally don't have any choice about where they can live, that doesn't describe most workers at least in developed countries. For a given rent, most workers have a choice to have more space at the expense of living in the suburbs and having a long commute, or less space and living closer to/within the urban core, such that you can get around on a bike if you want.
The latter aren't elite, they just make different choices.
There's also the phenomenon of disregarding car costs in choice of location due to lack of imagination about not needing one car per person
I know quite a few non poor people who moved to the suburbs or exurbs because they "couldn't" afford a single family home in cycling distance, then pretty much immediatly spend 60k on new cars because they need them to be reliable and then burn through like 300€ / month in operating cost for the commute alone at which point they would've had enough budget to level out the price difference.
They're mostly cool people, but a few of them definitely turned into carbrained I am the disadvantaged working class, those damn 2br apartment elite city slickers people