Of course, you might not be able to get that far. A greyhound ticket is expensive when you don't have work and are trying to feed children. Or your parents live in the same area. Or they are dead. Or maybe greyhound doesn't serve your area well enough for you to get transportation to the bus stop. and these are just shallow things. Anyone who doesn't have a parent or friend to stay with in an area with jobs is just out of luck.
That's why when a company pays for relocation, they typically pay in the ballpark of $500 to account for the expenses associated with an interstate move for one person.
...which would be a nice narrative if it wasn't an order of magnitude off.
Someone relocating has to pay for:
-transportation of themselves (that's your Greyhound)
-transportation of their goods OR re-purchases of all the basic necessities (something to sleep on, something to cook with, etc) - $1000 conservatively
-transportation or purchase of a vehicle (because you really can't live and work without a car in most of the US), so in fact, let's forget about Greyhound. Throw in vehicle registration fees, increase in insurance (going from Podunk, MN to SF Bay Area will cost you $1000 just there, not accounting for gas/mileage).
Of course, you can save by moving to an area with extensive public transportation networks, but that means you'll pay way more in...
-security deposit AND first month's rent (which, spoiler! is usually going to be much higher in the city that people are relocating to). Again, for the Bay Rea, assuming you are a 20-something single who can live with room-mates (and not someone with a family who needs an apartment), that's around $1000 + $1000 if you are lucky. Add more for NYC where 2x rent is standard for a deposit (remember how you were going to save by going car-less? Put all that money here)
-perhaps you don't have a job offer waiting for you, so a month's worth of expenses while you're looking for a job. Let's say you are frugal, so that's $500, assuming you don't want health insurance and your jalopy made it across the country without needing repairs.
So somewhere around $5K for a single person for interstate relocation, assuming one finds a job within a month.
(I moved with a job offer; typical tech relocation packages are around $5-10K)
To all those looking at Greyhound costs, I need to ask: have you ever actually moved somewhere, tallying your expenses?
For an immigrant the contrast is very clear. For some one born and used to privilege not so much.
There is reason why so many new millionaires are made, but existing heirs of all those millionaires don't become billionaires. Without any real pressure, a persons efforts will juts wax and wane over time.