For many, it's not really a choice at all. You can move, but what if you're company keeps opening bases and closing them or expanding/shrinking them on a regular basis? Moving a family around constantly isn't feasible.

Not trying to further the debate on this one, but this is a reality many of us have faced.

And as mentioned before, it's not just commuters. The example of the baby is a perfect one. What if the guy with the 4pm show with a midnight or 1 am duty off had to get up at 5-6 am, help the wife with the baby, run errands, THEN go to work? He's not any better off then the guy that got up early to commute in. If anything, he's worse. The guy on the commute probably got a nap in.