Writes Daniel Coleman: “In my work as an editor I often deal with statistics, most of which are provided by some government bureau or another.
“I just came across a statistic that I didn’t believe, so I had to double check it. According to the most recent survey taken by the National Resources Inventory under the National Resource and Conservation Service: Of our nation’s total surface area, only 6% of it is developed. Forests and other rural land cover about a 23% of our nation; pastures, farms, and ranges make up nearly half of of our land mass.
“Where is the rest? Well, 21% of it is held by the federal government. Americans would have to spread themselves out four times over just to match all of the valuable land that these thugs are sitting on.
“Who says that America is becoming a polluted, overcrowded, and overdeveloped country? The next time someone comes to me with a petition for the federal government to add more lands under their ‘protection,’ I’ll tell them to go get a life. It’s the government that needs to free up land for private use, not vice versa.”
