> Even a hundred years ago there were vast swathes of Australia, the central US, and South America generally uninhabited yet arable land, and the distances of t

> Even a hundred years ago there were vast swathes of Australia, the central US, and South America generally uninhabited yet arable land, and the distances of the time made it infeasible for anyone to effectively police all of it. You're ommiting the fact that "bandits in a humvee" were there as well - see for example Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight.