"That said, I live in Seattle, where there is good public transportation." boy are you in for a treat when you move to a city with good public transportation!
I don't understand why every country/state/city doesn't have superb public transportation. I live in a city in India which has a pathetic public transportation system. The buses are irregular and you can't rely on it at all.
I've recently read that only something like 3% of Indian population pays any income taxes - that's probably one of major reasons.
What the actual fuck? Is this by design or do a billion people all manage to game the system?
I've been to India, and I'm quite sure nobody I met except maybe the hotels serving tourists, was paying taxes. Shops, restaurants, businesses all only accepted cash. And they also never give a receipt. So yeah, 3% sounds about right.
I live in South Africa. It's a similar situation here. The problem is that most people are so poor, they legally don't have to pay income tax. (because they are unemployed or have a really shitty income)
From what I've read, most people make so little that they're exempt from the tax altogether.
In fact, around 3% file their tax returns. Under 2% actually pay tax (rest are in non-taxable income slabs)