While I do think capsule hotels are just too small, I do sympathize with wanting a lifestyle where you own an actual house on actual land in an actually quiet, rural environment, and occasionally commute into the city for work, sleeping in a pieds-a-terre, which for working-class folk would look something like a studio or 1-bedroom apartment within walking distance of the office. You would rent the studio on a monthly basis for basically as long as your relationship continues with that employer, stay there mid-week, and take rail 3-5 hours out to the rural countryside for the weekend.
That's hell. So most of the time you are away from your home and probably from your family if you have one. If you don't have one - you are leaving your home unwatched most of the time. You pay for 2 places instead of 1. 3-5 hrs commute away from your job - that's nuts by itself.
What you should dream of instead - most jobs becoming remote or physically proximal to where you live.
For hybrid workplaces wanting 3 days in-office, it's a little less than half
> away from your family
Yes, this is a trade-off. The choice is between whether your family will be crammed into a too-small-barely-affordable apartment in the city, or a more spacious house, since anything family-sized in the city is priced for executives. A lot of kids don't live at home during college; a lot of sales people and the like are used to living out of a suitcase, this is a similar lifestyle except better because the pieds-a-terre apartment is actually stable, it's not the same as living out of hotel rooms.
> pay for 2 places instead of 1
Theoretically 1 pieds-a-terre + train tickets + 1 rural mortgage payment is cheaper than 1 family-sized apartment in the city. If it's not in your case - fair enough.
> 3-5 hour commute away from your job
Even if it's 5 hours, if you do that twice a week plus 3x 15 minute walks each way, that's 10h45m commute time per week, mostly on a train where you can watch movies, read something, etc. If you drive two hours each way, in congestion, to a (premium-priced) house in the suburbs, that's 10 hours of commute time per week fully concentrated on the road. YMMV.
> dream of remote or physically proximal
Well sure. That's a dream. Part of the question is, what's a realistic goal to set for yourself? Pieds-a-terre + train + rural house is achievable on my own agency. Overhauling the industry to become remote-first, or overhauling housing to become more affordable closer to employers, is not.
