Well, if it's impossible to measure there's not much point arguing about it. The other rhetorical questions I can actually address.
How many government subsidies do these elites consume?
Knowing what government budgets look like, I'm going to guess some, but not a game-changing amount. Most of their money comes from their money.
Would we even have a car dependent infrastructure nation wide?
Probably. Before cars there was a lot of rail barons, so it's not like they needed that to stay rich. As far as I can tell that sort of urban plan was a stupid idea that had broad currency in the midcentury.