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Comment by Shivetya | Hacker News Reader

I think a better map would be to show how much land is in private hands versus held by Federal and State governments. I bet people would be shocked, see this article from 2016 [1]

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/federal...

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I bet with more data they would be underwhelmed. Compare the Federal Lands map[0] with a land-cover map[1].

See how much of that BLM managed property is semi-desert? And how much is actually Forest Service land? The first map also includes state lands, which is more apparent in the East, and Alaska. I for one am proud of our reserving of lands for the greater public. It's all of our lands, not just a few greedy landowners.

[0]https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium...

(above found here: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/pad-us-land-management-map)

[1]https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/pad-us-land-management-map

I advise Americans to auction empty federal land holdings. having so much of land in state's property is wrong, and very uncapitalist.

Sell your kidneys, too. /s

What useful things does the US federal government do with all that land?

Prevent ecological destruction.

Can you formulate this in a less meaning-amorphous phrase. "Prevent ecological destruction" in this context can mean every thing imaginable.

Yes, I can. But I think it's clear enough already, especially in contrast to the supremely vague assertion about economic ethics.

It is not clear to me.

I've never understood how the federal government holding all of this land has held up in court. What is the constitutional justification for this?

Because the land is owned by the U.S. Federal government after making deals with European countries, Native Americans, and also taking it from Native Americans by force.

No one has yet transfered the property rights to the land to anyone else.

The Property Clause.

https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/4/essays/1...

Governments can own property too...in capitalist economy government is just one of many market participants.

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