This isn't really an abstract problem that requires reductio ad absurdum type arguments. I grew up in the UK and I visit the valley sometimes. There are several

This isn't really an abstract problem that requires reductio ad absurdum type arguments. I grew up in the UK and I visit the valley sometimes. There are several things you immediately notice: 1) Every building is incredibly short. 2) Every building is spaced very far apart. 3) Every road is incredibly wide. Even fairly unimportant roads, the sort that have rinky dink little cafes on them, will often have three lanes in each direction or more. The Valley has a homelessness problem because the people who live there refuse to let anyone build tall, dense housing complexes. There's so much space here you could crush the homelessness and poverty problems instantly by just relaxing zoning rules, it wouldn't even take a social housing programme. But instead all the space is taken up with tiny low rise buildings surrounded by enormous parking lots.