I live on Staten Island for the record.

Look I've read your comments on this post and it sounds to me like you have an extremely negative bias and skewed viewpoint on remote work. People aren't being lazy or sitting around in their pajamas all day. They simply don't see the purpose of having to waste time going to an office when there is literally no reason why they need to physically be there. People want to save as much time out of their day as possible and commuting eats up a lot of people's day.

Your question: "You want the nice NYC job, but you think you shouldn't have to leave your house for it?" is coming from an outdated belief and viewpoint on the working world and is just simply wrong. What I'm trying to say is that if a company wants me to physically be there to do the job, then there needs to be adequate justification as to why that is. If I'm working as a chef then yes, by all means I need to physically be in the kitchen making food. That's justified and makes sense. Currently, I'm working a job where everything I do is online and 98% of my communications are done via email/Microsoft Teams. There is literally no reason why I need to physically be there and my boss has no justifiable reason other than "It's what I want."

I am working hard to move closer to the city because it is what I want. The whole reason I took this job in the first place was to put me on a better career path that would eventually lead to a higher salary down the line. You need to stop looking at all this as people being "victims" or "whiney" and start asking yourself "Why is it this way to begin with?" You said you've essentially been in my position before with the long commute, but your argument that "I went through it so other people should too.", is flimsy as hell. That's like someone who's mentally ill and lived in the 70s saying: "I couldn't get proper mental health treatment when I was younger so other people shouldn't either."

All people want is a better quality of life and we should be as a society heading in a progressive direction that improves that quality for everyone involved. Many people feel remote work is a major quality of life enhancer. Have you honest to God never stopped and questioned why society is the way it is? The 1% have manipulated the way we live and think so heavily and not for our best interests. They want us to be poor. They want us to be miserable. They don't care about us and we should be pushing back on their bullshit.

Did you walk uphill both ways to school as well?