Ive been car free my entire life and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life

Or until you start a family.

i have a family. living with a small child in an american city without a car is entirely possible. you lose the ability to go out (either to city or to nature) but with a small child you don’t have time to do that anyway so you might as well pay more to live closer to your job. alternative is paying the difference in rent for a car loan and loosing the time you don’t have while sitting in traffic. big caveat: this works only if you earn enough to be able to afford living close to a city center in the first place. also, it is still way less comfortable than a life in a developed european city.

alternative is paying the difference in rent for a car loan

Why do you have to take an expensive loan to get a car? Is there no used car market in US? I live in a bit different reality, and here there’s thriving market at any price tag. You have to do the research, pay for paint thickness check to ensure car didn’t get wrapped around a tree, but getting very cheap used car to drive your ass from point A to point B is absolutely a thing.