[Age of Reason]

And now the nanny-class has a new cause - suburbsn sprawl; to alleviate it they are conducting massive surveys with the anticipated result being a change in local zoning laws that will force people back into high-density housing to protect the new commons they hope to create from the then worthless (unbuildable) land.

The greatest danger to freedom is overcrowding.

If America's population continues to grow, there will come a time when the single-family home will be discouraged by being taxed out of existence, or failing that, siezed under eminent domain so as to free the land for more efficent use by building high-rises on it.

What's left of the wilderness will be turned into great outdoor museums, which people will wait on line for months to visit--and when visiting, will be disallowed from venturing from wilderness paths.

Needless to say, those people will not be able to pick flowers or berries without a picking permit and bag limit (as today we have hunting and fishing permits--something our forebears would have thought a crazy idea, too), and no cutting of firewood.

In fact, no campfires or fireplaces--too many people whose activities already spew too much pollutants for "necessary" activities, to allow a few people the "luxurious waste" of a wood fire for purely aesthetic reasons.

[Old Professer]

That would be a great argument if the population was actually growing; in America (the U.S.A.), the native population is reproducing at a negative rate; it is only immigration that swells our ranks.

[Modernman]

The greatest danger to freedom is overcrowding

We're not really overcrowded in this country- large swathes of this nation are essentially untamed wildernes. Hell, Southern New Jersey is basically woddland with a few towns here and there. I won't even talk about how empty the West is.

Overcrowding occurs becuase certain places are a magnet for Americans- Manhattan, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami etc. etc. Those places become crowded not because there isn't enough space in this country, but because people voluntarily move there.

I realize I'm going seriously off-topic.