By this logic we must conclude that only a tiny portion of people actually want to live in beachfront properties and take a few months off to travel every year.
Everyone else seeks out cheaper apartments and 9-5 jobs with two weeks vacation.
Everyone else seeks out cheaper apartments and 9-5 jobs with two weeks vacation.
There's plenty of beachfront places in other countries American families could easily afford and retire and yet chose to work to live in dumpy apartments in Manhattan instead.
It only works if it's within your financial means.
We can't all assume everyone doesn't want a $200M house in the hills with a megayacht and a full staff because they don't have it. They don't have the means.
But if you have the means and chose something else, it's not because you're dumb and society is evil and tricking you. It's because that's what you want.
Most of the time, people just do things without thinking too much about it and they do the things that are the "default mode" operations in the context in which they are operating.
It is not wise to look at actions people take and conclude that's what they really wanted to do. At the very least you'd need to ask them about it.
There may be 100 reasons why they feel tied to a spot where they actually don't want so much to live in. So let's try to really and truly improve the cities, make them walkable with green and blue spaces, easy public transport out to larger parks and reserves, etc.
Everyone has choices. The society we've made is the sum of our choices. You don't freely chose to do things you don't want to (given your available options).