[aahortwwy]

No, I'm not talking about "preference". People don't "prefer" to live paycheck-to-paycheck, with any meager savings they're able to accumulate being consumed by unplanned expenses until they're eventually forced to take on debt to make ends meet - which only exacerbates the problem by reducing their cash flow even further.

"Just move" or "just get a new job" is great advice for a highly mobile household where the workers have skills in high demand (e.g. young tech workers with no dependents).

For a great many people, "just move" is terrible advice. Moving is financially burdensome, socially disruptive, at times irresponsible, and at other times impossible. Not everyone has the option of just picking up and moving to a place that's more economically viable. They may not have the money to move. They may have obligations tying them to a particular geographical area. There might be legal barriers preventing them from moving.

"Just get a new job" is similarly terrible advice for most workers, for whom a job is not an easily disposable or replaceable thing. It's nice to work in software, where anyone with a reasonable network can organize half a dozen interviews next week with close to no effort. Most people aren't in software, though. A friend with a STEM PhD recently spent 18 months looking for a new job. Now think about people who have less desirable education or skills. "Just get a new job" is not advice that they can act on easily; certainly not quickly in response to rising fuel prices.

I was going to write a long thing here about autonomy and economic circumstances, but I can't really be bothered. In short: people really don't like having their entire lives disrupted, and we shouldn't be building a society that expects that of the average person.

[throwaway22032]

Everything you write here is true, but at the end of the day, if someone lives 50 miles from their job and fuel prices went up enough they would either move or get a new job.

Same if the local grocery stores all closed.

They're not just gonna curl up and die. They might stay and struggle and try to make it work until it's not possible, sure.

You're overcomplicating something that really doesn't need to be. I've been poor, have poor friends, we have autonomy, lol.