I don’t remember where I read this, but I remember reading recently how somebody justified their decision to leave “the city” to move to a rural area, with the phrase “I was tired of competing with my neighbors”.

I they were trying to convey sense you describe, of intense economic pressure to make a certain income to pay for a certain living or working space, or alternatively be kicked out because there are ten people in line waiting to take your space.

Perhaps a healthy culture cannot survive this degree of “efficiency”.