It is nice for you that you are in a field where jobs are so copious or conveniently located, but not everyone is. I'm a Latin teacher. I eliminated a tremendous number of jobs from consideration because they were outside of biking range of my home, but even so, I don't really get to choose to be somewhere accessible. My job is not accessible by public transit (unless you consider walk to Alewife, T to State, walk to bus with very intermittent schedule, bus to school accessible). I do bike it most of the time, even in rain or snow, but sometimes it's just 10 degrees out, or there's 6 inches of snow on the ground and it's still falling and they should've called a snow day but didn't, and it's not safe; hence, car.
OK, sure, I could have chosen to be a software engineer like everyone else and had my husband's half-mile commute (except that I would have hated my job). Or I could have chosen to live on-campus (except that my husband would have gone mad). Or I could have bought a house close to where I work (except then my husband would have had the long commute, and, oh yeah, I can't afford a house in Newton anyway). Or I could have rented an apartment near where I work (except, again, my husband with the long commute, and both of us living a long way away from our friends or other non-work things we might care to get to).
What I'm saying is, length of commute may be a choice, but that doesn't mean it's an easy or even a feasible choice, and people may have plenty of other priorities which are just more important. Your life may contain a number of luxuries (such as the field you have the aptitude/credentials to enter, or the lack of a spouse who might have a job in a very different place, or friends who all live near your work) which enable you to make this choice at low cost, but that doesn't mean others have the same luxury.
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OK, sure, I could have chosen to be a software engineer like everyone else and had my husband's half-mile commute (except that I would have hated my job). Or I could have chosen to live on-campus (except that my husband would have gone mad). Or I could have bought a house close to where I work (except then my husband would have had the long commute, and, oh yeah, I can't afford a house in Newton anyway). Or I could have rented an apartment near where I work (except, again, my husband with the long commute, and both of us living a long way away from our friends or other non-work things we might care to get to).
What I'm saying is, length of commute may be a choice, but that doesn't mean it's an easy or even a feasible choice, and people may have plenty of other priorities which are just more important. Your life may contain a number of luxuries (such as the field you have the aptitude/credentials to enter, or the lack of a spouse who might have a job in a very different place, or friends who all live near your work) which enable you to make this choice at low cost, but that doesn't mean others have the same luxury.