“I’m indifferent. I doubt that I’ve put more than a hundred miles on my vehicles in the past four months, or over 500 miles in the past year.”
Yeah well, there is a ton of poor slobs in fly-over country that have to drive over 100 miles to work and back every day just trying to feed the kids. Ever think about them?
For several years I drove 100 miles round trip to and from work. It was my choice to work that far from home, or to live that far from work. I grumbled when I was filling my tank with gas that cost over $1 more (and up to $2 more) than it currently costs (especially since I was usually driving a Chevy Suburban that wasn't particularly fuel efficient), but I got by. If I couldn't have afforded the commuting costs I could have changed my employment or residence to change the situation.
For just as long a period of time as I had that long commute, I lived and worked someplace else. I lived a mile or so from work, so I could walk in, and I lived in apartments where their marketing brochure said "We're not actually public housing. We just look like it." I got by then too.
Before that for a period of time, I rented a bedroom from somebody to live in, worked at minimum wage, and commuted about 60 miles a day through city traffic driving a boat of a 1972 Ford LTD. Seemed better than the hassle of collecting unemployment. I counted up the pennies in my penny jar when keeping track of my net worth. I found ways to get by.