Your point about urban planning is an important one, and one I often point out when trying to explain the difference between being poor in the US and e.g. in we

Your point about urban planning is an important one, and one I often point out when trying to explain the difference between being poor in the US and e.g. in western Europe. Urban (and rural!) sprawl makes the economic burden of car ownership universal and unavoidable. Changing course on urban planning and zoning could do a lot of good.