Why do we have to "Work so Hard" to make a living?

[jeff47]

118. Growth really doesn't enter into it

People used to be greatly compressed into cities. Because our primary transportation system was "feet" (horses were for the wealthy or work animals).

It wasn't until widespread use of cars that we could realistically start spreading out from the cities. That spreading out doesn't require any growth at all. Just movement from urban areas to suburban areas. And there was a lot of movement away from the cities from the 60's through the 90's.

It takes a while to build new infrastructure to support a suburb, and it also takes a while for an area to not feel "remote" anymore. Plus you start with wealthy people moving out of the cities, so it takes a while for builders to make affordable suburban houses. As a result, it takes a long time for us to spread out into those larger, more distant houses.

As for car age, one huge factor in that is the large reliability improvements in cars. It wasn't that long ago that a 12-year-old car required tons of work to keep it running. As a result, older cars weren't that affordable unless you happened to have a way to do some of the work yourself. Today, a 12-year-old car was built in 2000. It's far more reliable and requires far less repairs than a 1980 car did in 1992. My 2002 has some rust and other cosmetic issues, but generally runs quite well.