> "It may be desirable that we remove the artificial scarcity, but it is also a distraction from the core question at hand." I respectfully disagree and so doe

> "It may be desirable that we remove the artificial scarcity, but it is also a distraction from the core question at hand." I respectfully disagree and so does Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser who has written extensively about this as does FT columnist and economist Tim Harford (as explained in his book, "The Undercover Economist" as does Steve Beyer who has written about this in the NYT and Forbes as well as other places. Japan passed a federal law that overruled local restrictions and in 2014 Tokyo built 140,000 residences compared with a total of 20,000 in NYC and about 90,000 in the entire state of California. I'm speaking pragmatically. > "A port, for instance..." A port is a much greater and natural scarcity compared with, say Manhattan which is huge as well as London which is not an island, but made "an artificial one" because of the Green Belt that circles London.