Almost anyone will accept a 50% quality decrease for a 99% cost decrease. The only reasons I'm not living in a stack of cardboard boxes for $1 rent are that it's illegal, and the police won't protect it from break-ins.
You can go and live in cardboard boxes right now for free. Why aren't you? Being technically legal or not is besides the point - there are places where it is tolerated.
> The only reasons I'm not living in a stack of cardboard boxes for $1 rent are that it's illegal
My initial reaction to reading this is not "oh great analogy", it's "please have higher standards for your quality of living"