Quote from hilojack:
Then MOVE! You can live an hour outside of these cities and take public transportation to work, live within your means, and have a perfectly comfortable lifestyle. The problem is that lazy and greedy people want what they can't afford and will vote for any idiot who will promise it to them.
You are obviously not familiar with the New York metropolitan area. Any location within a one hour commute of Manhattan has a very high cost of living and very high housing costs. Even a two hour commute doesn't bring a reasonable cost of living and reasonable housing costs. Some of the towns that are a two hour commute are even more expensive than the towns that are only a one hour commute.