That 3 hour commute reminder me of one of NPR’s shows dealing with illegal immigration. They compared one chicken processing plant that hired illegals and another that didn’t that paid about the same wage (according to NPR), thus “proving” that illegals didn’t drive down wages. The problem was that they were only 25 minutes apart, thus well within the same labor market. They intentionally ignored the chance that wages were already depressed by the illegals. But they did it with the serious NPR voice so it sounded reasonable.
Young people (under 40) are very susceptible to the type of delivery used on NPR. IMO