> Yet it's still difficult for people working low wage jobs to afford food, housing (meaning housing in an area that's reasonably safe to live in), and transportation (again, that's reasonably safe to use).
I think one thing ties these together (as a common denominator): land. There's a limited supply of land in any city/county/state/country/planet, so people must compete for it. Agriculture also requires land, and you can't even scale it vertically as well as you can scale housing (you may build taller buildings, but not taller farms).
Yes, there's a finite supply of land, but much of it is not currently being used for either housing (or more generally, housing, offices, factories, and all the infrastructure that goes with them, such as roads) or agriculture. In fact, IIRC, the fraction of land on the Earth that is used for all such purposes has been decreasing in recent years.
I think one thing ties these together (as a common denominator): land. There's a limited supply of land in any city/county/state/country/planet, so people must compete for it. Agriculture also requires land, and you can't even scale it vertically as well as you can scale housing (you may build taller buildings, but not taller farms).