alt Hacker News> They want conveniences of the city/metropolis (access to jobs, entertainment, and education)
But not without having to travel. And once travel is in the picture, you can be to the same places just as fast from a farm as you can from another point in the city. It might be hard to appreciate if you have never lived on a farm, but once you do you'll realize that the highway is unbelievably efficient.
Your point only holds for when that stuff is available within walking distance of one's home. But now we're back to not needing costly transportation, so...
> They don't want farm work (required for that income) either
Where do you get the idea that farm work is a necessary condition to realize an income from farm land? Most farmers (in the legal sense) don't farm their own land, they have other farmers work it through sharecropping/rental agreements.
> But not without having to travel. And once travel is in the picture, you can be to the same places just as fast from a farm as you can from another point in the city.
Your phrase "having to travel" is painting with a very broad brush.
There are naturally huge variations in transit time depending on where you live in a metropolis, where you are going, and how you are getting there.
I can walk 15 minutes to a coffee shop and grocery store, drive 20 minutes to a Walmart, and take a train 35 minutes to the office.
All are very convenient and the latter two require transportation.
> Where do you get the idea that farm work is a necessary condition to realize an income from farm land? Most farmers (in the legal sense) don't farm their own land, they have other farmers work it through sharecropping/rental agreements.
Even if you aren't doing the hard labor, you have to want to manage that kind of business. Most people evidently prefer not to, and instead like urban jobs. The last 150 years of urbanization isn't a fluke.