People move to where they can make a living. Globalization has largely killed farming as a viable livelihood (in most of the EU at least), it's simply not profitable enough unless you have a massive amount of land/cattle or have invested heavily in automation (usually both). Without that important sector, it's doubtful the trend will reverse unless cities become literally unlivable or there's some kind of miracle in transport technology.
Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
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Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#22Meanwhile The Netherlands is bright green due to its suburbanization policies of the 1970s. Let’s spread people out instead of building out our cities…
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#23Yet still a lot of houses is expensive as h...rent/buy - doesn't really matter.
Houses are expensive in places where everybody wants to be.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#24Not enough software engineers converting to farming? Shocking. If anything else, for me the main issue in France is the dearth of doctors in rural areas. So even the romantic idea of retiring in quaint village is predicated on not getting sick.
Farming continues to be automated. Farms continue to be bought up for way more than their worth (farmland in the U.K. goes for 100-200 times the rental value) as part of wealth concentration.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes, but it's still rough. I live 200m from the border of a european capital with good road access towards everything, and even our community is continually shrinking.
Here's how you can stop it: no national licences to distribute power, telecommunications, medicine, fuel, etc. Even some software. Then you will have to have regional duplicates of each. Stuff will cost more though.
This is how communist countries managed to make educated professional urbanites live more impoverished lives than American burger flippers. By prioritizing "equality" to the point that you destroy your society's productivity and make everyone's life worse. Would not recommend.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#26Europe has been ruined, since USA interfered militarily in Europe. Since 1900, major U.S. military interventions in Europe have included full-scale combat operations during World War I (1917–1918) and World War II (1941–1945), as well as targeted Allied troop deployments in Archangel and Siberia during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920). Throughout the Cold War, U.S. forces executed non-combat and advisory operations,…
I would to like to know which of its interventions you're talking about. People don't normally complain about the help on WW2
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#27Yet still a lot of houses is expensive as h...rent/buy - doesn't really matter.
Houses are expensive in places where everybody wants to be.
You didn't understand, I was referring to those "depopulated" places as well. So even thought a population of an area decreased prices don't show that.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#28Not enough software engineers converting to farming? Shocking. If anything else, for me the main issue in France is the dearth of doctors in rural areas. So even the romantic idea of retiring in quaint village is predicated on not getting sick.
Just hire a large muscular guy from the banlieues to drive you around in your Maserati.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#29Some countries have really high housing prices and housing scarcity right on a border with another country where this isn't the case. You can get 30-40% differences just by moving a few km on the borders of the Netherlands. The reason this isn't that popular is that by moving like that you get to deal with different jurisdictions and tax systems. Particularly the social systems different countries have are very different. So there's a cost to moving to another country. But it sure is tempting when you realize that what you paid for a small apartment buys you a large house with a garden just 10 km away.
Here in Berlin where I currently live the population grows by a out 50K people a year. There are housing shortages and people are struggling to find a place to live.
However the surrounding Brandenburg area has been depopulating since the wall fell. Lots of little ghost towns there. And it's not even that far. There's plenty of housing available if you can tolerate the inconvenience of a shitty commute.
IMHO the coming revolution of autonomous driving is going to lower the cost and inconvenience of living a bit further away. It enables working or relaxing while you commute. A two hour commute is much less of a problem if you can be a bit productive. And of course you don't have to do that everyday. Lots of people work remotely some or all of the time.
Autonomous driving could also lower the cost of public transport by eliminating the cost of drivers and fossil fuels. Most of the reason of remote villages being underserved by public transport is cost. On demand pickups/dropoffs and more flexible scheduling could further address that. And it's a lot cheaper than commuter rail extensions.
Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago
#30What is the actual problem with this development?