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Remote towns have been stagnate or depopulating for decades. The problems for residents may be lack of services, high taxes, high energy costs, lack of opportun

Remote towns have been stagnate or depopulating for decades. The problems for residents may be lack of services, high taxes, high energy costs, lack of opportunity, access to shipping, etc. From the government's perspective. There are many factors for not building and improving remote towns. Some are: a) climate change (vehicles, heating, trucking and more) b) lack of infrastructure (gas, roads, railroads, healthcare) c) lack of budget (most of Federal revenues go to redistribution payments) The biggest issue I've noticed in Canada is a lack of will. Ibn Khaldun noticed later in a nation, citizens view the function of government as a means to provide leisure. Western Civilization is obviously going through a time of major upheaval. The 1950s - 1990s were an aberration, I don't think we're going to see those standards of living in the future. We can't expect large scale shipping routes to remote locations, so people can live in detached housing. Future housing will likely be large scale, high density, low sqft apartments designed for maximum efficiency of energy and infrastructure. My thoughts are the nation technically doesn't need many people living in rural areas. The collective pursuits will win over the individual in the future.

michael1999 5y ago
Before mass mechanization, we needed far more people to cut trees, mine nickel, or grow wheat. Now, we need far fewer people to do those things. But services like schools, banks, and hospitals have need certain levels of population to fund themselves and scale. These forces are the effects of capital, technology, and demographics, not will.
- waterlaw 5y ago
  It's many factors. However, the inability to create new cities and infrastructure can be overcome with will. Now, whether we need new cities is a separate question. In Canada where taxation and housing is expensive, the complaint has been that fertile landed is being used for urban sprawl. One potential solution, that's rarely discussed, is to build cities in the North adjacent to large bodies of water. With access to shipping routes, lower taxation and superior infrastructure to make up for the adverse affects of weather. You may argue the economic incentives and capital aren't there. I'd argue there's a massive misallocation of capital and the economy is fundamentally broken, but that'd be a lengthy discussion.
  - michael1999 5y ago
    How to do you have lower taxation when your costs (heating, food, labour, transportation, construction materials) are all higher? The north doesn't even have permanent roads, and building those would cost billions of dollars and zillions every year as the frost destroys them. Ask the Soviet Union if profitably settling the north is a mere matter of will. The easy way is to provide dirty water, shabby schools, and expensive food, but we do that already and people aren't exactly flocking north.

michael1999 5y ago

Before mass mechanization, we needed far more people to cut trees, mine nickel, or grow wheat. Now, we need far fewer people to do those things. But services like schools, banks, and hospitals have need certain levels of population to fund themselves and scale. These forces are the effects of capital, technology, and demographics, not will.

waterlaw 5y ago
It's many factors. However, the inability to create new cities and infrastructure can be overcome with will. Now, whether we need new cities is a separate question. In Canada where taxation and housing is expensive, the complaint has been that fertile landed is being used for urban sprawl. One potential solution, that's rarely discussed, is to build cities in the North adjacent to large bodies of water. With access to shipping routes, lower taxation and superior infrastructure to make up for the adverse affects of weather. You may argue the economic incentives and capital aren't there. I'd argue there's a massive misallocation of capital and the economy is fundamentally broken, but that'd be a lengthy discussion.
- michael1999 5y ago
  How to do you have lower taxation when your costs (heating, food, labour, transportation, construction materials) are all higher? The north doesn't even have permanent roads, and building those would cost billions of dollars and zillions every year as the frost destroys them. Ask the Soviet Union if profitably settling the north is a mere matter of will. The easy way is to provide dirty water, shabby schools, and expensive food, but we do that already and people aren't exactly flocking north.