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Comment by DmenshunlAnlsis | Hacker News Reader

Why the rush to increase the population in a water-poor, earthquake prone region? It seems crazy to me, and “money” seems an insufficient answer. California as a whole seems less than sustainable over the next 50 years, so maybe planning should aim in another direction? Instead of inducing people to live there, build competitors in less seismically unstable regions that have access to fresh water that isn’t just about gone.

I appreciate that every place is subject to some kind of disaster, but massive, regular earthquakes liquefying soil is second only to massive floods for destructive capacity. It’s also true that if for example you live near a Great Lake, you have water. In terms of risk to people and infrastructure, tornadoes are pretty minor compared to earthquakes and drought.

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This occurred to me too. Why is anybody picking these California cities over Washington or the like to move to for their tech career? Is the money just that much better, even adjusted for COL, that it's worth it to put up with the traffic, density, less visually appealing landscape, noise, and likely not being able to afford anything resembling a nice living space?

I chose a company without really considering the city (SF) after college. A lot of my friends ended up in the area as well. Then my network grew and it's become harder to leave, even though I keep planning to.

People don't need a lot of water. It's the lawns that need all the water. Why relocate millions of people when all you have to do is get rid of the stupid fucking lawns?

The lawns are part of the problem, so are toilets and baths and showers, and agriculture and industry. The point is that identifying the problem isn’t hard, it stopping it is downright impossible. Who is going to stop people from having lawns? Who will stop powerful agricultural interests from growing almonds?

Until the water runs out, people will waste it.

> Who is going to stop people from having lawns?

The same mythical creatures that can stop people from moving to Silicon Valley.

Or you could just price water appropriately and watch them disappear on their own. Quadrupling your water bill increases the cost of being a human by a percent at most, but increases the cost of owning a lawn several fold.

The same mythical creatures that can stop people from moving to Silicon Valley.

Who said anything like that? Not me. I just asked a question as to why, I never deluded myself into thinking I would change it. If you want to be snarky though, a high 7, low 8 quake will do it. For raising water prices though, it would need to be raised first and foremost on agriculture, which uses the majority of water in California. They have good nationwide lobbies, so it would be a mythical force indeed.

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