A filing cabinet of human lives Where people swarm like bees in tunneled hives, Each to his own cell in the covered comb, Identical and cramped — we call it home. – Apartment House, by Gerald Raftery
The conventional wisdom among America’s liberals, often seconded and almost never challenged by conservatives, is that population growth in the United States should be channeled as much as possible into the footprint of existing cities. Surrounding cities should be “greenbelts,” suburban growth should be rejected as unsustainable “sprawl,” and human settlement in areas defined as the “urban/wildland interface” should be discouraged and whenever possible reversed.
This movement towards increasing the population density of cities and reducing population in rural areas is already enshrined in numerous state laws in California, and is quietly rolling across the rest of the nation. It is marketed as enlightened, environmentally sustainable urban planning, but this moral pretext obscures a self-serving density agenda that is shared by several powerful special interests. Among all the misanthropic trends in public policy that threaten the freedom and prosperity of ordinary Americans, the density agenda is probably the least discussed.
Before considering how population densification serves the interests of America’s economic and political elites, it’s important to recognize how it will fundamentally undermine the ability of American individuals and communities to retain their freedom and independence. You don’t have to reference Agenda 2030 – about which it is now almost impossible to find any negative commentary online – to understand […] Read More
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