The problem is of course that the world can't afford the current life style, or as you call it, reality of life, of the people of North America. So the question

The problem is of course that the world can't afford the current life style, or as you call it, reality of life, of the people of North America. So the question really is, how important is that trip between Seattle and Dallas in the first place? Less than a month ago I spent 23 hours on different trains and an overnight ferry to let my children visit their grandparents that live in a different country. And since we do, rail connections are rapidly improving since there is a demand for them. And I know that isn't possible everywhere in the world. But if you really want your kids to spend time with their grandparents several times a year, then you better live closer to them. Even if it means a less interesting and well paying job. In our case, my wife and I are of different nationalities (and we are certainly not unique in this regard), so we can only live close to one set of grandparents. But that means that they kids only get to see the other pair of grandparents once, maybe twice a year, and we spend quite a bit of time on travel for that. If people and politicians would have taken the climate threat seriously a few decades ago, when scientists started to tell us that this is real and dire, then you would already drive around in an electric car, you would already have fast coast to coast high speed trains, and maybe even something like hydrogen fuelled airplanes. We already have all the money and technology to solve this. Unfortunately the most important ingredient is missing, and that is political will.