I think a pivotal part of your statement is "close". Close in time and close in distance are not necessarily mutually inclusive. There are many things we could do to to break this coupling if we had the will to spend the time and resources innovating on improving the human condition, but everyone is too busy trying to get theirs to do it. Those with the resources are incentivized to keep the status quo and often even use those resources to ensure their continued control of how and where people live to ensure their profits.