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.
What are the economic factors that enable a house in Manhattan to cost so much more than your house in the burbs? You argue that no rational person should choose to live in the city, but clearly rational people are demanding homes there, to the tune of creating that great a price differential. Why?