tl;dr: With the advent of globalization, and ubiquitous “me too” vacations, there are more and more jobs that require workers to be flying or on the road. Instead of raising the standards of living across the global and making the dominant work culture more accessible to workers everywhere, we end up relying on outdated infrastructures (cities/freeways/trains/airports) to handle the population’s commute. I voice my opinion in a couple of directions for solving these issues.
No, you didn’t read the title wrong. Remote culture goes hand in hand with universal health care (and the lack of).
I did not always live in the U.S.A. I come from a small island called Taiwan when I was 14. Growing up, it was normal for me to go to the doctors and pay small co-pays and get the yearly check-ups with my single-income family of 4. Taiwan has universal health care, it was not a perfect system. But, if you pay your taxes, then usually you are not looking at a crippling bill after any length of stay in the hospital.
My father (in his 40s at the time), had fallen ill and had to put his salary work on hold. He did odd jobs and small contracting work here and there, and worked mostly remote. Luckily, his long term illness was covered completely under…