Yeah its not an unfair solution. Everything has a cost, and in cases with public money "someone else" is always going to pay for it.
In fact, I'd almost say, as a bad example, that it is like the Matrix movies.
While it's wasteful, from a generative "value" standpoint, the seeming "stability" of the whole system has value. So, safety valves, of sorts, that is, ways out of the Urbanization-paradigm, likely have the value of keeping the system from being overly oppressive, since humans are not machines in the sense of comportment. That is, that behavior is not exactly what we would call deterministic to the notion of economic value.
Humans tend to act in accordance with consideration to the notion of economic value, but not deterministically with respect to that value. In fact, (as my twisted mind is apt to associate the two) it's seems almost like a sort of case of Hegelian "determinate negation." That is, that the "value" (for a consciousness) of value
outside economic value is exactly what gives both any actual meaning.
OK, I am likely off the rails, I'll leave it at that for now.