h/t atrios:

Extreme commutes: More time on road means less time for family

Zack Guettinger's alarm sounds at 3:45 a.m., bringing with it a cruel reminder that he must drag himself out of bed for another three-hour drive to his job in San Ramon.

[...]

On a typical day, he drives 200 miles there and back. It's not a short drive, but as he explained, it's what must be done.

"I struggle through every day with the drive so they can have somewhere nice to live," the 31-year-old Guettinger explained. "I really wanted to get a house down in the Valley for everyone to grow up in."

In one month, he spends nearly 100 hours on the highways that connect the Central Valley to the Bay Area. In a year, to go to work, he'll be behind the wheel for 1,152 hours, or 48 days.

[...]

There's a phrase, "Drive until you qualify," meaning that a Bay Area worker can afford a house only if he moves farther from his job.

Guettinger lives on Arena Way in rural Livingston, where he moved a few years ago with his wife and kids because he couldn't bear the thought of his sons growing up in an unsafe Bay Area neighborhood. [full story]

Things are tough all over, but when I read a story like this (and look at the picture of the Guettingers) I can't help but wonder what kind of kooky personal math went into the measurement of "what must be done" in order to find "somewhere nice to live" that isn't in "an unsafe neighborhood." Were all the neighborhoods within a 200 mile radius of dude's job completely, statistically, objectively dangerous, or was it that he and his wife couldn't find the "right" kind of safe neighborhood? This is completely anecdotal and IMHO, but in my NYC-specific experience people don't commute 200 miles a day to tech jobs just because the numbers don't add up. They do it because there are fantasy and ego drivers pushing them as well, like a dream home or a block with specific views. Or they do it because they have a socially constructed relationship to "the city" that makes it impossible for them to recognize viable opportunities closer in.

Either way, as Atrios puts it "people make choices." Dude made his as is his right, but forgive me if I find those 100 hours driving and 600 dollars spent a week on gas a waste of time and money.