On his Cafe Hayek blog, esteemed economist Don Boudreaux has recently ignited a fascinating conversation on the concept of limited land, inspired by the FLOWidealism listserve. In it, the idea is explored that we would seek to expand the amount of land available by various means (many of which are explored in Part IV of Juggernaut and specifically the chapter on Transcending the System).

This calls to mind Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier Thesis as well. We see that the problem was not, as Malthus suggested, that the resources were limited and could not keep up with the growing population; it was rather that the resources were all controlled and that those in charge of them would reasonably check their use. Here we find the basis for concerns about overpopulation and the scarcity of necessary resources. Certainly, natural resources such as land, food crops, petroleum, and clean water are all quite abundant in the world and can be procured satisfactorily despite a nearly exponential growth in population. The fact is that they can all be contained and thus controlled, and so it seems as though they are limited and at risk of exhaustion.

Limited land is an economic problem because the open system becomes a closed one. As Turner put it in his treatise The Frontier in American History, “So long as free land exists, the opportunity for a competency exists, and economic power secures political power.” And, contrarily, one could say, so long as free land is not available, the opportunity for a competency does not exist, and economic restrictions secure political restrictions.

The article:

http://cafehayek.com/2011/04/land.html/