maybe it really doesn't make sense to travel 80 miles a day to get to work? just saying, at some point it becomes a poor societal and personal tradeoff. where do you think the line is?

to some extend the 80 mile commute is being subsidized (roads, artificially lower gas prices, cost of congestion, pollution, sufficient space for parking at dense destinations, etc)

I'm not saying there aren't tradeoffs, but you can't really assert that as a group we just have to accommodate 80 mile daily commutes for everyone and solve backwards from that.

For me it comes down to my house - I can't sell it as it is worth less than when I purchased it. This is the case for a lot of people since the housing crash.

Also, jobs come and go. Sometimes I'm working close to home, sometimes 40 miles East, sometimes 50 miles north. I guess this is the same for most people. Why move when you're just going to get laid off in a years time?

i'm not criticizing your personal choices. i'm old and i can't afford to buy so i really screwed up. but as a matter of policy I'm not sure we should be encouraging exurb development by trying to twist transit around that.

more broadly i think the US (whatever combination of govt and industry) has failed to provide well for the guy with a job that wants to invest in property and possibly to raise a family. even with two incomes.

as you say, the promise of job stability is looking increasingly illusory

the job market putting you in a position where you are killing time in traffic for 2+ hours a day is a pretty clear sign of that failure