It's interesting that 40% of the US consists of farmland (according do some google searching). But farm output is only 1% of GDP. I think this is the major di

It's interesting that 40% of the US consists of farmland (according do some google searching). But farm output is only 1% of GDP. I think this is the major disconnect. You need a fair amount of that farmland for producing food (maybe all of it). So if you distributed the people across the farmland and had them farming, then you lose 99% of your GDP. With telecommunications and remote working, people could distribute and still work reasonably well, but you still need the land for farming, so you need to give up the idea of suburban utopia. Somewhat interesting to consider as I live in a walkup apartment building surrounded by farms, doing remote software development for a living... But even I long for a home with a proper garden... High density housing isn't really that great unless you also have the convenience of city living.