5 ms·

This has nothing to do with overpopulation, I'm not sure where you are getting that bizarre connection. If you read the article you can see that it is predator

This has nothing to do with overpopulation, I'm not sure where you are getting that bizarre connection. If you read the article you can see that it is predatory foreclosure and tax policies that give too much room for the county treasurer to do whatever they want.

im3w1l 7y ago
It's not about overpopulation as much as high population. The more people to be managed, the higher the abstraction level. And the higher abstraction level, the more against-common-sense things happen that can't be sorted out.
- nervousvarun 7y ago
  With human judges why do you say these can't be sorted out? It seems this is how the legal system sorta fundamentally works (in America). Laws are challenged in court and struck down all the time no?
  - coding123 7y ago
    Maybe, but it sucks that the guy that lost his home has gone through 3 courts already - and there is no law on his side. Remember too that courts can't strike down laws unless they violate other presumably more powerful laws. Courts would rather say that the fix is with the lawmakers. All that being said, I'm pretty sure if this was 1890 they would have just given back the guys house.
- eru 7y ago
  Sounds like the proper reaction is to keep responsibility down at the lowest level that can handle it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity) And, if necessary, break up political units (like counties and states, or even countries) into smaller pieces?
  - lazyasciiart 7y ago
    Perhaps the correct reaction is that the US has pushed responsibility down to levels smaller than can handle it already.
    - eru 7y ago
      Well, you'd have to separate accidental incompetence from what the specific level can truly handle. In terms of numbers of people, many US states are bigger than entire European countries. And American counties and cities aren't really smaller in terms of people than they used to be throughout history (or are they) or what we have in other countries in general.
      - lazyasciiart 7y ago
        American local government is unlike any other system I know. The most insane thing is police departments - each County has a completely independent police department, within a county each city will have their own police department, even many universities have police department of their own! Within ten miles of my house I think there are 8 police jurisdictions. Besides the silly amount of overhead introduced by having tiny "cities" with police departments making up several percent of their population (https://www.nj.com/news/2017/12/new_jersey_smallest_towns_with_their_own_police_de.html https://www.nj.com/news/2017/12/new_jersey_smallest_towns_wi...) this introduces obvious difficulties of coordination and communication - a few years ago there was a serial rapist who spread his crimes over multiple police jurisdictions so nobody identified the pattern until, by complete coincidence, a husband and wife who worked in different police departments talked to each other about a case she was working on. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/17/netflix-unbelievable-colorado-detective-stacy-galbraith/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/17/netflix-unbelievable-c... Next you have school districts, which are approximately 90% designed in order to segregate black kids from white kids, and the other 10% of justification is a race-blind desire to not pay for other kids to go to school, just your own. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/27/16004084/school-segregation-evolution https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/27/16004084/s...
- BubRoss 7y ago
  Did you read the article? This has nothing to do with 'high population' 'over population' or whatever feeling you get from the headline. He went to court multiple times and even though the courts agreed that he had been abused they couldn't correct the problem. This is a county that contains suburbs.

im3w1l 7y ago

It's not about overpopulation as much as high population. The more people to be managed, the higher the abstraction level. And the higher abstraction level, the more against-common-sense things happen that can't be sorted out.

nervousvarun 7y ago
With human judges why do you say these can't be sorted out? It seems this is how the legal system sorta fundamentally works (in America). Laws are challenged in court and struck down all the time no?
- coding123 7y ago
  Maybe, but it sucks that the guy that lost his home has gone through 3 courts already - and there is no law on his side. Remember too that courts can't strike down laws unless they violate other presumably more powerful laws. Courts would rather say that the fix is with the lawmakers. All that being said, I'm pretty sure if this was 1890 they would have just given back the guys house.
eru 7y ago
Sounds like the proper reaction is to keep responsibility down at the lowest level that can handle it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity) And, if necessary, break up political units (like counties and states, or even countries) into smaller pieces?
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  Perhaps the correct reaction is that the US has pushed responsibility down to levels smaller than can handle it already.
  - eru 7y ago
    Well, you'd have to separate accidental incompetence from what the specific level can truly handle. In terms of numbers of people, many US states are bigger than entire European countries. And American counties and cities aren't really smaller in terms of people than they used to be throughout history (or are they) or what we have in other countries in general.
    - lazyasciiart 7y ago
      American local government is unlike any other system I know. The most insane thing is police departments - each County has a completely independent police department, within a county each city will have their own police department, even many universities have police department of their own! Within ten miles of my house I think there are 8 police jurisdictions. Besides the silly amount of overhead introduced by having tiny "cities" with police departments making up several percent of their population (https://www.nj.com/news/2017/12/new_jersey_smallest_towns_with_their_own_police_de.html https://www.nj.com/news/2017/12/new_jersey_smallest_towns_wi...) this introduces obvious difficulties of coordination and communication - a few years ago there was a serial rapist who spread his crimes over multiple police jurisdictions so nobody identified the pattern until, by complete coincidence, a husband and wife who worked in different police departments talked to each other about a case she was working on. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/17/netflix-unbelievable-colorado-detective-stacy-galbraith/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/17/netflix-unbelievable-c... Next you have school districts, which are approximately 90% designed in order to segregate black kids from white kids, and the other 10% of justification is a race-blind desire to not pay for other kids to go to school, just your own. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/27/16004084/school-segregation-evolution https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/27/16004084/s...
BubRoss 7y ago
Did you read the article? This has nothing to do with 'high population' 'over population' or whatever feeling you get from the headline. He went to court multiple times and even though the courts agreed that he had been abused they couldn't correct the problem. This is a county that contains suburbs.