Agreed to some extent, but we need to stop pretending that living in a top tier city is some fundamental human right. It's possible some folks simply don't produce enough value to sustainably live in an expensive city, and should go and move somewhere less in demand where real-estate is cheaper. Plenty of such places exist, and really, considering the potential for remote work plus the ease of ordering online, we should be seeing a resurgence of small towns....

> considering the potential for remote work

That's the most important thing. There is not an incentive to move to smaller, cheap towns since there are not jobs there. Until remote work becomes more commonplace, people are de-facto stuck in expensive cities.

> IMO the best thing we can do to help the poor is fix the housing price insanity.

Not everyone has the right to live in the Bay Area or NYC. These are top cities. If you're not top financially, then go live somewhere else.

The Bay Area and NYC are not the only expensive areas...

Housing is cheap in 95% of the country.

~95% of the country by area. Not by population.

I could buy a house in the middle of nowhere for pennies, but it doesn't matter since there are no jobs there.

So what? Most of the population lives around the coast. Who cares if it’s cheap in flyover states.