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Comment by lmm | Hacker News Reader

The population keeps getting bigger, the amount of land stays the same. Something has to give or it's unfair to people who were unlucky enough to be born later. I'm all for having an absolute right to property you can carry, but land is different.

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Overpopulation is a problem which needs to be taken seriously but it's mostly a problem in developing world (Africa, Asia etc). US / Europe don't have overpopulation problems.

I think "Something has to give" is a little bit dangerous thing to say as private property ownership is one of main pillars of western free market societies. Why would land be different to property?

Forcefully taking private property from individuals to later sell to other private parties for private use sounds like the nightmare version of eminent domain.

Because it's not really practical to build more land, and it's difficult for people to choose their neighbours whose land use is going to affect their own; things like utilities, transit and emergency services have to be organized geographically. If guitar prices are high, anyone can make more guitars, and if you don't agree with your band on what kind of music to play, it's easy to form a new band with a different group of people. Land and housing don't behave like that.

Which is fine. There is a limited space on this planet so obviously population can't grow forever. It's high time we start decreasing world population if we want to save the environment and keep this planet habitable.

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