This is Ford, Sussex, the site of one of the proposed new towns. It lies at the junction between the railway lines from Brighton to Portsmouth and from Horsham to Littlehampton; the view is looking roughly to the north-east. The dotted red line is the missing link which would allow trains to go from Brighton to Horsham without going into Littlehampton and reversing, which would be useful when the main London to Brighton line is closed for engineering works. To the left is the River Arun, which is tidal at this point.
The site obviously well provided with rail connections and it is also close to the A27 coast road. But it is low-lying and on a flood plain. However, as long as the liability to flooding is taken into account in the design, it could be an exciting new development, perhaps with canals and other water areas both ornamental, recreational and with moorings for boats. But it will not work if it is filled up with affordable houses built down to cost limits - that will quickly degrade into a slum.
I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...
Kommentarer