A lot of work can be done remotely…the work that can be easily outsourced.

I’ve been working remotely and in an office for nearly 25 years. First connections were slow using modems that data transfer rates listed in Kilobytes plugged into a landline phone jack.

If you are creating value with a team, that team will deliver far less value if they are working from home than if they are working physically together. I’ve seen this so many times over so many years I should write a study.

The problems you describe are problems of modern US capitalism: income inequality and poltical corruption that creates a system reducing creative humans to cogs on a gear to be simply replaced when they are ground down.

It does not have to be this way. Look to modern social democracies in Europe for better solutions. Happier employees are more productive and the owners of companies that have such workers (I’m one) are happier as well.