The honestly surprising thing here imo is that even for *very* rich people apparently unbridled capitalism that makes them as rich as possible apparently doesn't buy them the same satisfaction as it can in places with less inequality.
You'd think (and every second temporarily embarrassed millionaire will argue) that if you can command a private limo, public transport doesn't matter. But apparently the systems that result in good public transport also result in amazing holidays for people so rich they wouldn't even consider using it.
If everyone can afford a nice coffee in the morning, there's a cute little cafe every 100 feet to serve it to them; if there's only 100 people in town that can afford that habit they're all going to have to hop into their swanky limos and haul their groggy asses to wherever the exclusive Coffee Club is located to get their fix.
If there's no public transit or bike infrastructure, your swanky limo is stuck in traffic behind 120 beat up Honda Civics.
If there's workers rights and public healthcare the barista there wants to have a nice little chat with every customer, because that's the human default way of greeting people in the morning. If there's not they straight up don't have the spoons and you get the dead-eyed Gen-X Millenial Gen-Z stare while you order.
No amount of individual expenditure will buy you what living in a healthy society gives.
