A number of years ago, a couple of east coast academics proposed transforming the mid-west of the USA into a vast buffalo commons because the concept of settling on the prairies was a failed experiment. In their opinion, the only responsible solution was to depopulate the land and return it to its natural state.
Taking a look at unemployment levels and social security dependency in those “waste lands” today, I wonder if the better place to look at returning land to nature is on the far eastern and western parts of the USA?
Out here in the middle of no-where Manitoba, we still continue to enjoy almost zero percent unemployment, above average rates of labour force participation, an expanding population and in-bound migration, and growing wealth.. Somehow, I do not think it would be in the national economic interest to turn us into a buffalo commons today.
