There’s a bunch of important considerations here that I’m glad to see a comprehensive writeup of. Not 100% sure how the moral/economic calculus all plugs together (although pretty clearly crosses into the threshold of “yes, build more and remove/simplify at least some of the regulations”). But regardless, agree that many of these points should be part of one’s model.
From a purely selfish standpoint:
I moved to the Bay Area in part because it’s current bundle was a significant improvement in several important dimensions that would definitely get worse if a lot more people moved there (specifically, access to nature and nature-esque things). I’m very glad that there isn’t good public transportation to the Marin Headlands and Mill Valley, because then those places would probably become terrible. I’m (selfishly) glad some combination of weird social forces and (apparently, I learned last week on Slatestar) weird regulations cause every house in my neighborhood to have gardens. I’m glad I can look up at night and see stars.
I’m happy to have-to-have paid extra money and weird networking costs to get that.
(Again, not saying this is good in the cosmic or medium-cosmic sense – it being good for me depended on me having a particular collection of fortunate circumstances. But, it’d still be bad for me personally if those things went away)
I didn’t come for the nature or the weather, but that’s definitely why I stay. I hadn’t realized how much access to nature I could use and like I would enjoy (came from Florida where there’s lots of nature but it’s inconvenient to use because it’s got, there’s bugs, and you have to drive to most of it).
There’s a bunch of important considerations here that I’m glad to see a comprehensive writeup of. Not 100% sure how the moral/economic calculus all plugs together (although pretty clearly crosses into the threshold of “yes, build more and remove/simplify at least some of the regulations”). But regardless, agree that many of these points should be part of one’s model.
From a purely selfish standpoint:
I moved to the Bay Area in part because it’s current bundle was a significant improvement in several important dimensions that would definitely get worse if a lot more people moved there (specifically, access to nature and nature-esque things). I’m very glad that there isn’t good public transportation to the Marin Headlands and Mill Valley, because then those places would probably become terrible. I’m (selfishly) glad some combination of weird social forces and (apparently, I learned last week on Slatestar) weird regulations cause every house in my neighborhood to have gardens. I’m glad I can look up at night and see stars.
I’m happy to have-to-have paid extra money and weird networking costs to get that.
(Again, not saying this is good in the cosmic or medium-cosmic sense – it being good for me depended on me having a particular collection of fortunate circumstances. But, it’d still be bad for me personally if those things went away)
I didn’t come for the nature or the weather, but that’s definitely why I stay. I hadn’t realized how much access to nature I could use and like I would enjoy (came from Florida where there’s lots of nature but it’s inconvenient to use because it’s got, there’s bugs, and you have to drive to most of it).