> "if you cannot afford it, stop complainingb and live elsehwere" they say...sure...but a commuter train into Manhattan can run you $30-50/day. Add in parking at the commuter train station and you're down about $60 or more a day.

When people say that, I think they mean "get another job in another city that doesn't require a commute to Manhattan."

Yes, there are lots of cities in the US. Most cities dont have job centers. They might have jobs at Walmart, McDonalds, etc but not jobs that pay living wages. People are rational -- they either do the math, or have witnessed the math playing out in real life. You can live in a super-low-cost city but earning minimum wage don't make ends meet. Worse, it may even put you into a threshold where you get no medical care. If you have children, it doesnt pay for rent + healthcare + child care.

There is another reason people stick to major job centers -- because it is extremely risky moving to a 2nd or 3rd tier job center. You have to sign a 1yr lease on an apartment and are locked in. But your job isnt guaranteed for a year. There may be few or no other jobs in 2nd or 3rd tier job centers. Say you default on your lease -- now you have a way bigger problem because you cannot rent again (you have bad credit) and you also need to pass credit checks to get a job. https://www.nerdwallet.com/finance/learn/credit-score-employ...

Ultimately we all need to realize people are rational (NOT lazy) -- people are doing the math and the math aint mathing. Hence the "Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation"