Suppose there are two employees: Alice and Bob, who do the same job at the same factory. Alice has a 10 minute (20RT) commute, Bob commutes 35 minutes(70RT).
If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?
It’s a good concept in my opinion, but only when people have plenty of choice in where they live. In practice, especially with the current housing situation in many countries, that’s not always the case.
If you apply this, you’ll end up in a situation where someone living outside the city can’t get a job anywhere. Without a good job, you also can’t live in the city, so you’re stuck trying to start your own business (as employees also could without such a system) or you’re forced to take whatever you can get, giving the few employers near sparsely populated areas an immense amount of power.
This solution punishes people who live far out in a different way, in that they can’t find a job at all. I don’t think that’s better than a system without compensation of any kind.
I see how that becomes a negative feedback loop. Gotta think some more.