That's easy. It costs more because people make the economic judgement that it's worth paying extra for what the city provides, like proximity to jobs and services.
If the subways charged what they really cost they would be far more expensive than automobiles.
And what would happen if all the people riding the New York City subway or the Chicago El started driving individual cars? What would hundreds of thousands of additional cars on the streets at rush hour, needing parking, cost the economy?
The city work hub is being replaced by the internet hub that enables workers to be widely dispersed.
Yeah, when that internet janitor app is perfected, it's gonna be great! But seriously, never gonna happen.Employers who have tried it are rolling it back.
NYC's population would be declining if not for the imports from third world countries.
I'll be someone could have said that every year since 1800 and thought it especially true.
The people that can afford to move out are voting with their feet.
Aren't you the one who said it costs more to live there? But the answer is that they're paying extra for certain benefits like space, better schools, and so on.
Suburbanites aren't paying extra to live in the suburbs. They get so much more for their money they can afford to increase their standard of living. My half-acre 4 floor house in NJ is 7 miles geographically from Manhattan. A comparable house in Manhattan would go for $35 million, which is out of my price range at the moment. So doing an apples to apples comparison, it is profoundly more expensive to live in a city. The commute time from my NJ suburb into Manhattan is one hour door to door, shorter than many subway commutes from Brooklyn. Anyone that chooses to live in Brooklyn instead needs to have their head examined.
The demand for socialism, bigger government, more rules and restrictions, is driven by population density. Manhattan has 70,000 people per square mile and votes communist, while 60 miles northwest of Manhattan is Pike County PA which has 100 people per square mile. They vote for freedom, drive around with loaded weapons, barbecue their food, and blare their music as loud as they like.
Republicans represent the nicer suburbs and beyond, Democrats represent the city dwellers. Obviously Democrats want everyone to move into a city and learn to vote communist. Misery loves company. But Republicans should fight increasing population density. 70,000 people living per one square mile is not natural. Outside of modern times that has not occurred before in the history of mankind. The modern invention of the high-rise city served its purpose when there were factories that needed to be manned, but now with e-mail, the internet, video conferencing, there is no longer an economic advantage to building high density nuclear bomb targets.
While it doesn't apply to everyone, most people would do well to move out of the Devil's dens.